COVID-19 TX

Many Texans are using telemedicine for the first time. The pandemic has underscored disparities in access to health care and broadband internet.

With nearly half of all deaths in Texas related to COVID-19 occurring among nursing home residents and staff, advocates at AARP Texas are encouraging those with loved ones in long-term care facilities to check regularly on the loved ones’ health and wellbeing.

The following is a report from Roz Brown of the Public News Service (TX):

Pets are a lifeline for social interaction during the pandemic. But the uptick in time spent with our pets is a disruption to their schedules.

Austin’s public transportation system -- Capital Metro -- is edging closer toward a possible citywide referendum this fall on a transit-expansion plan intended to ease congestion and to help Austin contend with an expected doubling of its population over the next 25 years.

Stress – or the body’s response to any demand – may not be all that bad in small doses. It can help us get through a short-term crisis, such as the first few days of a pandemic. But chronic stress -- the ongoing kind, such as weeks’-long interruptions to our normal rhythms due to the coronavirus outbreak -- is the stuff that can be a mental killer.

Being anxious is a perfectly understandable reaction to our rapidly changing environment during the pandemic, and coping starts with normalizing these feelings and accepting them, says Dr. Andy Keller, a clinical psychologist and president and CEO of the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute.

AARP Texas announced today its support of a proposed amendment to the City of Austin’s payday and auto-title lending regulations to shore up protections for consumers.

AARP Texas voiced support Thursday (May 7) for an Austin City Council resolution that calls for more resources to combat the high numbers of COVID-19 cases in area nursing homes.

With nursing homes and other long-term care facilities hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, AARP Texas is holding virtual meetings with members of Texas’ congressional delegation to urge more help for older Americans and their families.