Continuing with the theme of Mental Health Awareness Month, this week we spoke to Chelsea, the Volunteer Resource Connector for L.A.Work’s TeleSocial Program — a program that our very own host Raymond started! What is TeleSocial, you ask? The L.A.Works TeleSocial Program is a great way to connect isolated & lonely seniors to buddies who will call and check in on them once a week. “During this time of self-quarantine, it is very easy for social distancing to become social isolation…especially for seniors, who are most at risk for COVID19 so must stay away from other people.” You can sign your loved ones up at https://www.laworks.com/telesocial where they will receive a friendly phone call from a volunteer to check in, share their experiences in self-quarantine, or just chat! Pretty neat, huh?  You can also check out all the other L.A. Works volunteer opportunities at https://www.laworks.com/

Chelsea has taken this program to new heights, and she’s truly the perfect candidate to do so. She is currently pursuing a Master's in Social Work & Disaster Resilience at Tulane University and hopes to further her work in the broad field of mental health and community development. We cover so much - what does a Disaster Resilience degree entail? How does isolation manifest in the body? And what inspired Raymond to create this program? Find out in this episode!