Caring for our Parents (even when we are Seniors, too!) Tips and Assists

[jrodgers]

One of the ways that we care for my father is to make sure that bills get paid. He still manages his money, but with oversight from my brother.

Since Dad had a stroke last year, we take turns staying at his house and making sure he is doing well.

All of us have cell phones with pretty good cameras, so when a bill comes in we take a picture of it and send it to my brother via email or messenger. The original goes in my brother’s folder – if Dad pays it the bill gets marked as paid and the date and form of payment.

When my brother comes, he can check to see what still needs paying and make sure that payments have cleared.

If something needs paying sooner, he can print the photo and pay the bill from the photo.

jrodgers

ps: what are some of the things that you do to make it easier to care for an elderly parent?

[jrodgers]

While Dad is recovering and we are each coming to assist him as needed, we discovered that we were really lousy mind readers, so we had to have a system to remember appointments for both my Dad and his older sister.

After a few episodes of the incoming sibling taking Dad to the doctor and discovering that his condition was unchanged – (he was just having a bad day), we also discovered that we needed to keep each other updated about Dad’s functioning while we were there (and inform the doctor as well).

The third area we had problems was a source of great frustration, hurt feelings and conflict between us sibs: We have to let Dad know and the other siblings know when something is moved or removed from the house otherwise countless frustrating minutes are spent looking for it.

We discovered an online family organizer with messaging, journal, calendar, sharable pages called cozi. it has all of these features (we opted for the paid version, but there is a free version available) messages, calendar updates, and journal entries trigger an automatic email to everyone on the email list, including the doctors. any one of us can log in using our email address and the family password to read, or update anything.

there is also a private webpage available for sharing pictures – we have opted not to activate this at this time due to privacy concerns related to image sharing.

cozi has been a real lifesaver and helped each of us to be updated when we arrive, so that transitions are easier for us and for dad.

[jrodgers]

My father is deaf unless his Cochlear Implant receiver is worn. He has also lost more than 50% of the visual field in both eyes and in his right eye the defect affects his fine vision. He is recovering well from his stroke and able to do much more for himself, even stay a few days on his own.

We have concerns about whether or not in an emergency he can communicate with emergency personnel. So we are researching various services available and accessible by emergency personnel to make sure that they have our contact information, his medical history, know that he has hearing and vision loss, know what medications he is taking and are able to access the house in an emergency.

What are some of the services you have found that perform this function?

[Author]

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