******** Camilla,
I don’t know where, or if, this will fit into your comments.......but another thing we just became aware of with my Mother......(Mother lived in a small town which has become a part of Terre Haute and still had a local trash hauler rather than municipal services available)
We relied on the friends who were more than willing “to look after your mother”.....However, this past week my sister was in Indiana and had face-face encounters with two other persons:
a. Trashman/garbage hauler -- who on several occasions last summer, found Mother outside at 6 am when he arrived.....she appeared disoriented, he helped her back in the house........but left being very concerned.
b. Lawn service man: last summer found mother with the car wedged in the garage, unable to get out of it on one occasion.......just sitting in the car in the driveway on several occasions........worried about her, helped as he could....
The comments from both individuals to my sister was....”I was worried about her last summer, but didn’t know who to call or to contact.” If possible, if there are individuals providing services who might be available for information....possibly insurance agent (home or auto).....are bills being paid in timely manner? Even utility company might be good to leave the name of a contact person with........
A thought just occurred to me: Possibly a sticker or note (BOLD PRINT, highly visible).......on the refrigerator door noting: EMERGENCY MEDICAL INFORMATION IN FREEZER.
(By the way the freezer suggestion came from Champaign-Urbana fire department which delivered empty pill bottles to elderly folks in the 1960’s (we were in grad school in Urbana at the time)....the instructions were to use a rubberband to fasten the bottle to the refrigerator shelf with instructions/information folded inside.....the logic... Uniform location; the refrigerator seldom burns in a fire, and not lost in a shuffle of papers. We switched to the freezer and zip lock bags because it is easier to put the information into.)
The cost of the ziplock bags in minimal...make them available at support group meetings and seminars with index cards or xerox copies of pages inside: CURRENT MEDICATION SCHEDULE: CONTACT PERSONS in case of emergency:
Family in town;; family out of town; pharmacy, doctor, dentist, clergy....insurance information ....(This is also handy to grab when you are going to the emergency room......I keep a couple of quarters in the bag for parking meters and phone calls!)
Rita
Note: I am so pleased that you are posting the information from your meeting.....this is such a timely event for us, it gives me time to really evaluate what did work (and what we could have done to make it work).
Rita
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As I believe I posted, the “Vial of Life” program our police dept. offers is similar to Rita’s baggie idea. Someone else also mentioned it, so it muct be available in other places too. We need all the help we can get! I like the suggestion of having a “hospital pack” ready to go—we find this helps a lot on trips to the ER,etc where you have to remember all the meds, medical history, etc...quite a challenge in an emergancy, or at 2:00AM!