Medicare changes and requirements can be confusing, especially in the fall Open Enrollment period. But you can relax because there is a free, unbiased, LifePath program to help you. SHINE, which stands for “Serving the Health Insurance Needs of Everyone (with Medicare),” uses trained volunteers to discreetly meet with Medicare recipients, answer questions, and provide education to support decisions. Serving 54 towns covered by LifePath and Highland Valley Elder Services, the 42 SHINE volunteers go through an extensive training program and also attend regular monthly informational meetings to ensure the most up-to-date information to use when working with their clients on Medicare.
If the prospect of learning Medicare information and volunteering to help others appeals to you, you are needed now to train and help in the North Quabbin, Westfield, and Northampton areas.
If the prospect of learning Medicare information and volunteering to help others appeals to you, you are needed now to train and help in the North Quabbin, Westfield, and Northampton areas. Lorraine York-Edberg, LifePath’s SHINE Director, explained that potential volunteers must have a clean CORI and attend all 14 days of training. “Volunteers must be at ease with using a computer and the internet as well as Zoom, a camera and a microphone,” says York-Edberg. In these days of COVID caution, training and client contact is mostly online, although it can be a mix of phone, internet, and in-person delivery.
The spring SHINE training will be held starting in April, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with a break from 12 to 1 p.m. You need not have experience with insurance to be a SHINE volunteer, but a willingness to learn and provide important education to Medicare recipients is essential. Imparting the technical knowledge with a reassuring and warm personal style is always a bonus for clients.
For more information about SHINE and other exciting volunteer opportunities at LifePath, contact Pat Sicard, RSVP Volunteer Manager, 413-387-1286, or psicard@communityaction.us.
