Updates on our status will be posted on the East Lyme Town Hall website – www.eltownhall.com, and the East Lyme Senior Center page on the SECT regional senior center website –  www.seniorcenterct.org, the Senior Center Facebook page and on the Senior Center answering machine.

For the foreseeable future, it seems likely that classes at the Senior Center will be held on-line. To prepare for this, we need to help you use Zoom – a videoconferencing software. There is no charge to use the software but you will need to be sure you have the correct equipment in order to log on. We need to help you learn how to use this application. More to follow.
To use Zoom on a laptop or computer you will need:
• A computer or laptop which has speakers, a microphone and a video camera. You can also join a Zoom meeting without a camera but we don’t recommend it. If your laptop does not have a video camera, you can buy these inexpensively. If your computer doesn’t have speakers or a microphone, you might try hands-free headphones which have an integrated microphone. HOWEVER, most devices today have these items already installed.
• A reliable internet connection and preferably a quiet room.
You can also access Zoom from your mobile phone or tablet. Same stipulations as above. Using Zoom on your phone or tablet is not quite as easy but it can still be done.
To use Zoom, the Groton Public Library put together 3 tutorials which are short and clear cut.
Thank you Jessica Franco.
Zoom Basics Part 1- What is Zoom?
Zoom Basics Part 2- How to join a meeting
Zoom Basics Part 3- Navigating a Zoom Meeting & Etiquette
Go to your search bar in your internet browser and type in YouTube. You will then be brought to the YouTube site. In their search bar, type in Groton Public
Library Zoom tutorials. You will find the above 3.
Another site is www.geeksontour.com.
On their home page, look to the lower left. You will see All tutorial videos (short). Click on this and then look for 614.OT- Zoom How to Join a meeting.

COVID 19 update https://youtu.be/eotBv4GphsI from our Groton Town Police

Medicare has temporarily expanded its coverage of telehealth services to respond to the current Public Health Emergency. These services expand the current telehealth covered services, to help you have access from more places (including your home), with a wider range of communication tools (including smartphones), to interact with a range of providers (such as doctors, nurse practitioners, clinical psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech language pathologists). During this time, you will be able to receive a specific set of services through telehealth including evaluation and management visits (common office visits), mental health counseling and preventive health screenings without a copayment if you have Original Medicare. This will help ensure you are able to visit with your doctor from your home, without having to go to a doctor’s office or hospital, which puts you and others at risk of exposure to COVID-19.
You may be able to communicate with your doctors or certain other practitioners without necessarily going to the doctor’s office in person for a full visit. Medicare pays for “virtual check-ins”—brief, virtual services with your physician or certain practitioners where the communication isn’t related to a medical visit within the previous 7 days and doesn’t lead to a medical visit within the next 24 hours (or soonest appointment available).
• You need to consent verbally to using virtual check-ins and your doctor must document that consent in your medical record before you use this service. You pay your usual Medicare coinsurance and deductible for these services. Medicare also pays for you to communicate with your doctors using online patient portals without going to the doctor’s office. Like the virtual check-ins, you must initiate these individual communications.

The Renter Rebate Program through the State of CT provides a rebate to renters who are elderly or disabled. The Senior Center is currently unable to take appointments in the office. All applicants who previously applied have been contacted with instructions about how to apply this year. Any new applicants can contact the Senior Center office with questions. The application period runs until October 1st. Please be sure to have your
SSA1099 for 2019 or its equivalent from Social Security as it is required in order to process an application.
To be eligible:
1. An applicant or the spouse must be 65 or older; or be 100% disabled (per Social Security);
or be 50 and a surviving spouse.
2. Must have lived in Connecticut for 1 year.
3. Total 2019 income which includes Social Security must not exceed:
Married $45,100
Single $37,000
If you collect Social Security, you must provide your SSA1099 for 2019.
4. Thirty-five percent of the applicant’s annual rent must exceed 5% of the applicant’s income.
Proof of income received and rent and utility payments made in calendar year 2019 must be provided.

AARP On-Line Smart Driver Classes are available. If you need to renew your car insurance discount due to course cancellations, you can take the AARP Smart Driver online course. AARP is offering a special 25% off discount for those who may have to take it online now. This offer is to keep the price close to the classroom course price.

Promo code for 25% discount: DRIVINGSKILLS Good through: July 31, 2020″
Website: www.aarpdriversafety.org

A Free Zoom Poetry Class will run for June 9th – July 7th on Tuesdays at 10am. Those interested are asked to commit to all 5 weeks, if possible, as it will not be a drop in class. Instructor, Dr. Roger Singer, presently Old Lyme’s Poet Laureate and the president of the Shoreline Poetry Chapter, in association with the Connecticut Poetry Society has been published in numerous magazines, books and on the internet, and was a Pushcart Prize nominee in 2017. Singer says “I believe everyone has a message within, filled with numerous threads of material from their past, shaping who they are in the present.”
” In describing the class he says “I have compiled various instructional methods to guide students onto a path to express themselves. To register and get the Zoom code for this class please contact the Lymes’ Senior Center at seniorcenter@oldlyme-ct.gov

If you want to practice your Zoom skills without the pressure of a “class”, the Senior Center staff will be hosting a Talk to Us Tuesday starting on June 16th at 2pm. If you are interested in joining this coffee clutch, contact the office. We will be able to provide you with some instructions and then send you an invite.