In our mobile society, many of us are providing senior care or support for aging parents from a distance. It is vital to prepared with the emergency essentials when you want to help your senior loved ones stay safe. Today, we will focus on natural disaster emergency essentials as well as broad information for providing senior care long-distance (to avoid personal disasters!).

Emergency Essentials: Resources for Senior Disaster Preparedness

Five Hurricane Preparedness Mistakes To Avoid: Our Aging Life Care Professionals’ tips about the biggest mistakes people make and how you can avoid them (and the accompanying stress).

Florida Senior Resources for Hurricane Preparedness: Emergency Essentials checklist, Tampa Bay emergency phone numbers and websites and special needs planning information.

Emergency Essentials for Alzheimer’s Caregivers: Vital information for those caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, including how to reduce agitation and confusion.

The Red Cross: Emergency Essentials and Building a Personal Support Network

Emergency Essentials for the Long-Distance Caregiver

As a long-distance caregiver for a senior family member, being prepared for all types of emergencies (and regular changes) is essential. We find that being prepared with a few key items brings great peace of mind for senior caregivers. Here are a few tips and resources for ensuring you have the emergency essentials at hand!

1. Get organized! Help your loved one organize important papers, if needed, and know the location of vital information. Our Document Locator list is a great start and our care managers can help long-distance caregivers work on this project and put together an online caregiver management system.
2. Build a local support network. Who is checking in on your loved one? Neighbors, church communities and a trusted network of professionals can be your extended care network, though you should not be overly reliant on them when your loved one starts to need more help.
3. Know who to contact. Do some basic research about what is available in your loved one’s area and create a list of some of the key websites and phone #s you might need. One good example is to find a respite care provider. Gather information and recommendations. If your loved one lands in the hospital or is ill, you’ll know who to call, to at least help until you can get there.

Get Aging Wisely’s Essential Eldercare Checklist for a comprehensive list of steps to prepare at various stages of senior care. Contact us for help with all your senior care needs and questions!