Local Police Departments Assisting Older Adults by Picking Up Necessities

Oklahoma police departments are offering to pick up medications and other necessities for senior citizens or people who cannot leave their homes due to the COVID-19 epidemic, reports KFOR . Police in the town of McLoud are offering to get medicine, groceries, or anything else a senior or someone who is immunocompromised may require. "If you've got parents that live in our community or any other community, reach out to the police department to go by and do a welfare check, check on them, see if they need anything," advised McLoud Police Chief Wes Elliott. He explained that "we're intertwined with our community . . . as other agencies are. We just want them to know that we're there to serve them." The Blanchard police are taking similar steps, with their Facebook page announcing that "Operation HABS is being initiated . . . in response to the shut down of some city services, one of them being the senior citizen's center." Through the HABS (Helping All Blanchard Seniors) program, the police said they will "conduct regular welfare checks on senior citizens who are not able to get out and about, and . . . assist the Blanchard Senior Citizen's Center with delivery of food, as well as picking of provisions like groceries and delivering them to homebound citizens." Lisa Standridge with Blanchard Drug and Gift also has volunteered to deliver medications to homebound seniors.