If you’ve ever had to navigate Medicare for yourself or a loved one, you know how complicated the system is. This is why SHIBA (Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors) volunteers play such an important role – and why we’re happy to spotlight one dedicated person, Larry Cole, for his commitment and contributions to the program.

SHIBA provides free, unbiased and confidential Medicare advice. Volunteers help people enroll, compare plans to find the best fit for their medical needs and budget, and sign up for Medicare Savings Programs.

When Solid Ground took over the administration of SHIBA in King County in September 2021, we were fortunate to be able to rely on Larry and his several years’ experience as a volunteer.

Training for each SHIBA volunteer can take upwards of a year to complete. It’s a significant commitment, so the program truly depends on longtime volunteers like Larry to train and mentor new volunteers about the intricacies of Medicare.

During the pandemic, SHIBA changed from in-person to entirely remote and had to adapt quickly – and Larry stepped up enormously.

“When Solid Ground started managing the SHIBA program in King County, the transition was during COVID, and we lost many volunteers,” Larry says. “It became apparent that training the many new volunteers that Solid Ground found was critical, and I found a new calling!”

Sam Stones, the SHIBA Program Lead at Solid Ground, says the number of people looking for help with Medicare also grew dramatically during the pandemic. “Without Larry’s help with training so many new volunteers, there would have been no way we could keep up with the demand for assistance helping our community members find the right health insurance plan for them,” he says.

So Larry took the lead on mentoring up to eight new volunteers at a time. He also created new volunteer curricula, including case studies and an entire resource library. He tackled technical difficulties with grace – and helped new volunteers troubleshoot challenges to ensure they were able to connect and learn.

Larry says his love for the work comes from his mother. She worked as a Medicare manager for many years, and later became a SHIBA volunteer as well.

“Unfortunately, she died before I turned 65, so I couldn’t turn to her for answers,” he says. “But I knew what to research – and I knew about SHIBA – and connected with the King County branch. I had done my homework, and the volunteers I met with were impressed with my preparation and suggested I become a volunteer.”

In addition to training new volunteers, Larry presents Welcome to Medicare webinars and workshops for local community centers and Seattle Colleges. He’s a wonderful advocate for the people he serves – volunteers and community members alike.

A person’s health is deeply personal and can be stressful to discuss, and sometimes calls become quite emotional. So Larry trains volunteers in de-escalation methods and teaches them to approach callers with compassion and active listening to make sure each person feels heard.

“My first few meetings with elderly clients – many with cognitive decline struggling to understand their choices (or even just understand that they have choices!) – triggered the ‘give them back their power’ impulse, and I have been at it since.” ~Larry Cole, SHIBA volunteer

“Before retirement, I was a mental health counselor, and specialized in the older adult population,” he says. “I had many clients with cognitive decline, and that made it even more difficult to cope with depression and anxiety.”

Often, people feel powerless about their insurance options. Larry helps people reframe powerless narratives into ones of strength: “I found that my first and oftentimes only goal was to give them a sense of empowerment in coping with their lives. That made all the difference.”

Larry says, “It is SHIBA’s mission to give people the information to take back control of their lives, starting with the ability to manage their healthcare. My first few meetings with elderly clients – many with cognitive decline struggling to understand their choices (or even just understand that they have choices!) – triggered the ‘give them back their power’ impulse, and I have been at it since.”

For all of the above reasons and more, Solid Ground nominated Larry for a 2023 Washington State Volunteer Service Award, and he received an Honorable Mention – which we feel is extremely well deserved!

Congrats and thank you to Larry for your dedication to SHIBA and the many people whose lives you’ve positively impacted through sage and sound Medicare advice.

While we currently have a waiting list for SHIBA volunteers, you can read more about the program at Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA) – or contact Sam Stones, SHIBA Project Lead, at sams@solid-ground.org.