How to Keep Your Parents Safe from Financial Fraud

Unfortunately, many scammers prey upon the elderly. They know that these people are often home during the day, and may be lonely and looking for someone to talk with. As a result, it’s easier to get them to listen and then act on various scams. To protect your elderly loved one from various forms of financial fraud, keep these tips in mind:

Offer explanations, not just rules

While your parent should know that they shouldn’t give out personal information over the phone or respond to letters from unknown people, they also need to understand why. Instead of just saying, “hang up the phone” or “throw that out,” offer insight about why they must do this. Explain that the government wouldn’t call them at home and ask for their social security number as they have that number on file already. Remind them that they can’t claim winnings on a contest they never entered. When your senior understands this information, it helps them to more effectively identify a potential scam.

Monitor who they’re talking to

If your elderly family member lives nearby, keep a close eye on their mail and phone correspondence. Scammers are relentless, and may even add your senior onto their list of vulnerable targets. It’s not uncommon for an elderly individual to be bombarded with e-mail, snail mail, and phone calls from scammers on a regular basis. Keep an eye on who’s calling and what they’re calling about. If you suspect that they’re trying to turn your senior into a target, get the authorities involved.

Make them harder to find

If your parent is constantly receiving phone calls from scammers, make them harder to find. Unlist their home phone number, or have them use a cell phone, where it’s less common to receive calls from scammers. You can also put Mom or Dad’s address on opt-out lists so that they don’t receive junk mail. Should a piece of mail arrive that appears to be from a scammer, report it to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Keep an eye on your senior’s credit reports and bank statements to pick up on any fraudulent charges right away. This makes it easier to reverse the damage, thus preventing long-term financial harm to your parents. 

Exercise Ideas That Your Senior Will Love to Do

Though your senior’s body will change as they age, regular physical activity should remain a major part of their life. Some people falsely believe that there is no point in working out as they get older. In reality, quite the opposite is true. Regular workouts keep a person mentally alert and feeling positive. Additionally, regular workouts may help to ward off illness or injury. If you’re looking to help your elderly loved one get up and get active, consider these tips:

Try light cardio

A cardio workout can be customized based on your elderly family member’s ability level. Popular options for cardio workouts include:

• Dancing
• Tennis
• Walking around the neighborhood
• Swimming
• Biking
• Hiking
• Stair climbing

Whether your senior chooses to head out for a bike ride or to walk around the mall at their own pace, getting in some cardio each day is a necessary part of staying healthy. Cardio workouts boost endurance and help to cut down on fatigue. 

Incorporate strength training

Strength training workouts are not just for bodybuilders looking to pile on muscle. In fact, strength training can be the perfect workout for an elderly individual. These types of workouts improve balance and prevent the loss of bone mass, which matters to seniors.

Your elderly loved one can strength train using free weights, machines, their own body weight, or elastic bands. Depending on what they feel comfortable with, they can head to a local gym, purchase equipment to use at home, or even use items they have lying around the house (such as cans of soup) to get a workout in. There is no need to spend a lot of money or get fancy training in order to enjoy a workout focused on strength. 

Put a focus on flexibility

Your senior should also focus on their flexibility as they exercise. This helps the body to stay limber, and makes it easier to tie shoes, shampoo hair, and play with grandkids. Yoga is a great way to boost flexibility. Poses are easily modifiable based on skill and ability level, and the experience is a relaxing one.

Regardless of how fit or active your senior is, it’s important that they get in some sort of physical activity each day. Ideally, this exercise will include a mix of strength, cardio, and flexibility workouts. 

Tips for Seamlessly Moving Your Senior from the Hospital to a Nursing Home

Making the transition from hospital to nursing home can be a challenge for the elderly individual and their family alike. Your loved one may be resistant to the idea of heading to a nursing home, and you may feel concerned about whether they’re actually ready to leave. Use these tips to help make the transition seamless:

Figure out who’s in charge

You’re not alone when it comes to making this transition. Eldercare professionals advise families to figure out who’s handling your senior’s discharge from the hospital. Some hospitals may have a discharge coordinator, while others rely on the primary nurse to navigate the transition. 

This individual can become a powerful resource when it comes to getting your senior accustomed to their new living conditions. They can ensure that your loved one is heading to a place where they’ll be well cared for. Additionally, if you’re wary about letting your elderly loved one leave the hospital, they can have a discussion with you about what’s appropriate given their current state.

This person can also help to give you a sense of what your loved one’s recovery process will look like. They can provide guidance about the kinds of medications your senior will be taking, and may also offer information about training or other services that are available for the family.

Do your own research

However, senior care professionals explain that a family shouldn’t rely fully on hospital staff members or nursing home personnel to help guide the transition. To ensure that your elderly loved one receives the best care, you’ll want to do your own research too. Look into the top nursing homes in the area, learn about the side effects of the medications your senior is taking, and figure out what the healing process entails. When you have information, you feel better equipped to help them make the transition seamlessly.

Another way to prevent errors as your elderly family member moves from hospital to nursing home is to get copies of medical records. This allows you to ensure that they are sent with any and all necessary medication, and that everyone is on the same page about dosage. 

Protecting Your Senior with the Flu Shot

Though the holiday season is an exciting and joyous time of year, it also signifies the start of flu season. For seniors especially, this time of year can become dangerous, as elderly individuals are more likely to contract the flu. While the flu will sideline anyone, it is even more risky for seniors, as their immune systems are often already weakened. The flu can exasperate current health problems too, making vaccination important.

Get the flu facts

Experts state that roughly 90 percent of flu-related deaths and 60 percent of flu-related hospitalizations in the U.S. occur in people over the age of 65.1 For this reason, it is important to encourage your elderly loved one to get vaccinated so that they are less susceptible to this condition.

Protecting your senior

Ensuring good senior health comes down to attention to detail. Understand that your elderly loved one may have a weakened immune system, and encourage all people who come into contact with that senior to get a shot too. It’s not enough just to get your senior vaccinated, as they may quickly contract the illness from someone else. All family members, eldercare professionals, and friends who regularly come to visit should receive their vaccination too.

Practice good health habits

Even once the elderly individual and those who care for that person are vaccinated, it’s important to keep the focus on hygiene. This means covering a sneeze or cough with your sleeve, washing hands frequently, and avoiding people who are sick and might spread the illness. Remember that germs quickly spread to doorknobs, hand railings, and other places where we place our hands frequently, so proper hand washing is a must after spending a day out in public.

Encourage your senior to wash their hands thoroughly after they use the bathroom and before they prepare a meal. When it comes to care for the elderly, this is an important step. If your senior needs assistance with hand washing, make sure someone is there to help so this step does not get skipped.

Get vaccinated in time

There are myths floating around that the flu shot actually gives the recipient the flu, but these theories are unfounded. The vaccine is safe, and is covered by Medicare. However keep in mind that it takes about two weeks for the flu shot to start working, so make plans to get your senior vaccinated before flu season starts. The flu makes chronic health problems in elderly people worse, so this form of protection is a necessity.
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1. http://seniorcarecorner.com/seniors-flu-season-family-caregivers