About Connect: Who, What & Why
Mayo Clinic Connect is an online community that connects people. In the About Connect page, find out more about members, mentors and the community. Meet the team of Mayo Clinic moderators and how the community is managed. Review the community guidelines and learn how you can get the most from your Connect experience.
Twice a month, a member of your Connect community is featured in the Member Spotlights. Follow the About Connect page to get updates about members and the community.
COVID-19: It’s time to come together — virtually
In these rapidly changing times, you may feel uncertain and anxious with the COVID-19 virus looming. At the same time, our society is more fragmented than ever before. You may be cut off from some of your normal support systems, with businesses closing or directing employees to remote work, mass gatherings no longer occurring and activities cancelled. Recognizing that these conditions can easily produce social isolation — and perhaps a degree of loneliness and fear — the Mayo Clinic Connect community is here to offer you virtual support and interaction, through online community discussion.
It’s time to come together, virtually, to talk about anything that’s affecting you related to COVID-19, with a brand new Connect group, simply called COVID-19. This is a space to talk about topics such as:
- Closings in your community and how it affects you
- What you are doing to cope
- Whether keeping up your book club or running group makes sense
- How you can pass the time
- Housekeeping and disinfecting your home
- How to deal with your own or your children’s fears
- Being helpful to others in a challenging time
It’s also a space to congregate and be socially active. You can:
- Join the virtual walking group
- Tour virtual museums together
- Share art, music and books
- Find daily escapes and inspirations
Additionally, Mayo Clinic Connect would like to point you to reliable sources of COVID-19:
- Mayo Clinic News Network’s up-to-date news and information https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/category/covid-19/
- Recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
- The World Health Organization’s updates and resources https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
You can stay informed and also socially connected by chatting with others on Mayo Clinic Connect about COVID-19 and any other health issue concerning you right now. You can continue to connect with your Connect friends in the groups you already follow. And you can also get inspiration and information, and talk with others in the new COVID-19 Support Group.
How might connecting virtually help you stay socially active? What topic would you like to start?
woogie
@woogie
@woogie
Posts: 71
Joined: Mar 21, 2018
My husband keeps running to WalMart for toilet paper. (They are sold out, of course). I keep telling him to order some from a store and pick it up. I don't know how that works, but I surely get nervous when he keeps going out in public. I suffer from anxiety as it is–I pray all will be well soon. We have two dogs. We have a mommy shih tzu and her son Joey. Joey is nine years. I'm glad to have them. I saw a clip where a woman went to Hawaii, became ill, had the virus, flew home to Colorado. so now, how many people got it from her excursion. I believe people should stay home.
Liked by Teresa, Volunteer Mentor, JK, alumni mentor, Leonard, texasduchess
lioness
@lioness
@lioness
Posts: 7248
Joined: Jan 09, 2018
@woogie This is serious and people need to stay put. I'm a senior and always order online they delivery my groceries and I have meds delivered by mail.Go to Walmart.com Order 35.00 worth and delivery is free .You can also order through Instacart.com to most grocery stores you pay a fee about 5or 10.00 and they deliver also .It's so important to be proactive now
Liked by Teresa, Volunteer Mentor, Nancy, Volunteer Mentor, JK, alumni mentor, Leonard ... see all
Nancy, Volunteer Mentor
@1nan
@1nan
Posts: 191
Joined: Sep 08, 2016
@woogie This is serious and people need to stay put. I'm a senior and always order online they delivery my groceries and I have meds delivered by mail.Go to Walmart.com Order 35.00 worth and delivery is free .You can also order through Instacart.com to most grocery stores you pay a fee about 5or 10.00 and they deliver also .It's so important to be proactive now
Our local Weis grocery store has waived their fee. Perhaps you may find the same elsewhere.
Liked by Teresa, Volunteer Mentor, JK, alumni mentor, lioness, texasduchess
basslakebabe19
@basslakebabe19
@basslakebabe19
Posts: 52
Joined: May 28, 2019
I plan to grocery shop during the early hours just for seniors. Maybe every other week. My son and a friend will pick up what I need in between shopping trips.
Liked by Rosemary, Volunteer Mentor, Teresa, Volunteer Mentor, Nancy, Volunteer Mentor, JK, alumni mentor ... see all
JK, alumni mentor
@contentandwell
@contentandwell
Posts: 6201
Joined: Feb 18, 2017
I plan to grocery shop during the early hours just for seniors. Maybe every other week. My son and a friend will pick up what I need in between shopping trips.
@basslakebabe19 I found out today that the store that is doing these early hours for seniors is doing them from 5:30 – 7:00! I could probably make it there by 7:00, maybe even 6:30 some mornings, but most of the time not. They are only doing it on Tu, We, and Th.
JK
Dana, Volunteer Mentor
@danab
@danab
Posts: 376
Joined: Oct 18, 2018
My wife has been doing the shopping and i stay in the car. So tomorrow morning one of our stores is doing the senior thing so im up at 4 AM to head out. The senior hours are 5-7. My wife likes to see what she is buying and not rely on someone else deciding how to pick fresh items. Plus if this virus lives on things for a few days we also want to pick carefully and wash everything when we get home.
Teresa, Volunteer Mentor
@hopeful33250
@hopeful33250
Posts: 9969
Joined: Mar 28, 2016
My wife has been doing the shopping and i stay in the car. So tomorrow morning one of our stores is doing the senior thing so im up at 4 AM to head out. The senior hours are 5-7. My wife likes to see what she is buying and not rely on someone else deciding how to pick fresh items. Plus if this virus lives on things for a few days we also want to pick carefully and wash everything when we get home.
@danab It sounds like you and your wife have a good plan for getting groceries. I use a combination plan. I use a market's delivery service for heavy items, boxed, canned, dairy and bottled. For produce, meat, bread, etc. I prefer to pick out my own. Those items are not usually heavy so It's not much of a problem for me.
Colleen Young, Connect Director
@colleenyoung
@colleenyoung
Posts: 9670
Joined: Jul 23, 2014
These are great solutions for getting groceries and provisions. Members are sharing tips in this discussion too:
– Age 65 and Good Health: Can I get my own groceries? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/age-65-and-good-health/
Liked by Nancy, Volunteer Mentor, JK, alumni mentor, texasduchess
What do you do to pass the time. I am bored stiff and don’t know what to do with myself?
Liked by Nancy, Volunteer Mentor, lioness, texasduchess
win sturgeon
@cobweb
@cobweb
Posts: 195
Joined: Mar 21, 2016
I bike even though its only 40 degrees. Plus read the WSJ and tape some programs of interest. To old to reproduce.
Liked by Nancy, Volunteer Mentor, JK, alumni mentor, texasduchess
NiceHat
@Erinmfs
@Erinmfs
Posts: 180
Joined: Nov 30, 2015
What do you do to pass the time. I am bored stiff and don’t know what to do with myself?
I clean things, like I cleaned the range hood , replaced the light bulb. Clean something you've been avoiding. My church is putting events online, I also do bible studies. It's raining so not wanting to go for a walk. I also write letters, on paper, walk to the mailbox and mail, to a relative in a nursing home.
Liked by Nancy, Volunteer Mentor, JK, alumni mentor, texasduchess
lioness
@lioness
@lioness
Posts: 7248
Joined: Jan 09, 2018
What do you do to pass the time. I am bored stiff and don’t know what to do with myself?
@sto There are a lot of things people have posted on here . Travelogue on the computer just pick a country . DVD,s that you like , art work free handed or get an adult coloring book there are a lot of challeging pictures in there I don't know your sex so if crocheting is or working with fabric you like, Any kind of craft you may have or like to do or maybe something in the past you forgot about . Join our virtual walking exercise .
Liked by texasduchess
I bike even though its only 40 degrees. Plus read the WSJ and tape some programs of interest. To old to reproduce.
Good idea, I may have to get the old bike out. Thanks.
Liked by texasduchess
@sto There are a lot of things people have posted on here . Travelogue on the computer just pick a country . DVD,s that you like , art work free handed or get an adult coloring book there are a lot of challeging pictures in there I don't know your sex so if crocheting is or working with fabric you like, Any kind of craft you may have or like to do or maybe something in the past you forgot about . Join our virtual walking exercise .
Thanks. I am a male. How do you join the virtual walking exercise? New to all this technology.
Liked by lioness, texasduchess
@Erinmfs
This is a nice group to start. In my local county, the media says that just 9 tests have been taken, all negative. That's good news! I'm going out today, im out of milk. I've been sheltering in place since last week.
Liked by Colleen Young, Connect Director, Teresa, Volunteer Mentor, JK, alumni mentor, Lisa Lucier ... see all