Community Chat

[RedTop]

I totally agree with this article.  

One of the first actions we took after Mom’s diagnosis of dementia, was to take over her mail, and her checkbook.   

I have been surprised by what I have learned about aging, and dementia in the last few years.   I have been stunned by my mother’s loss of logic; from shredding a few simple things she needed to keep, not understanding the cost of things, and this weeks issue was her applying a body lotion she has used for years to her torso and causing inflammation to her skin.   She never knew that could happen....

Mom looks fine, we have cousins who come to visit for an hour and leave saying she acts just fine.  Mom functions great inside her familiar environment; take her to any outside location, and she’s like a cat with no whiskers.  Our elderly relatives need to be monitored closely!   

[drizzellla]

My poor Dad. He had a major stroke and had been in a nursing home for 10+ years. 

He had pnemonia and because he was not given the best antibiotic for his pnemonia he became septic and ended up in the hospital.

Somewhere between the nursing home and the hospital, my poor Dad was scammed. I suspect it was the annual visit from the hearing aid place. Every year they ordered my Dad a new hearing aid because he had diminished hearing. My Dad just threw the hearing aid in a drawer. Next year came and they ordered my Dad another new hearing aid.

Well, Dad was in the hospital and not given any hope of recovering and sent back to the nursing home. I started getting bills from Dell Computer. Someone ordered computers, monitors, digital cameras and numerous other items. I called Dell they said because my Dad's credit was so good they gave him a credit card with a high credit limit.

I said my Dad was sick in a nursing home and had been retired for over 15 years. Dell said that their credit application said my Dad was born in 1975.  They then said my Dad would have to go to the Police and have paperwork filled out because of the fraud.

The poor man wasn't able to get out of bed and wasn't always alert enough to fill out anything. My Dad died a few days latter. Well, Dell hounded me for years for the thousands of dollars of stuff.

Fraud happens and sadly you don't find out about it until the damage is done.

[pitdakota]

I am so glad to read this editorial and think about many of the things he mentioned.  Being a nurse and also having parents that dealt with aging and dementia, so much of what he says is true.

As people age, they don't always process information as well as when they are younger.  Then if you add the disrupted process associated with dementia, someone could be very vulnerable.

Thank goodness I didn't have any problems that arose with my parents, but it was something I was always monitoring.  

So while, we might dismiss something as obviously being a scam, we need to be diligent in being proactive for our senior population out there.

[depglass]

Teach your older family member not to answer calls if they don't recognize the number.  Make them a list of familiar numbers if their memory is severely diminished.  DH constantly was bugging me to answer my phone when I ignored it.  It took a long time to get through to him that these people are up to no good.  He would downright panic.   I don't know who he thought was calling, Michael Anthony?  (You have to be of a certain age to get that, he was a guy that went around handing out money on TV)

[bathina]

One of the newspapers had a report on a young woman, who owned a tarot reading business, convinced one of her clients that her (the tarot reader) daughter was possessed by the devil. She conned the client out of $70,000. The victim will never see that money again, no matter how much restitution is ordered.

[bonnielu]

So many calls to my phones.  If I were to actually pick up I am sure there are scams regardless of my advanced age. 

So far so good I have been able to outsmart them if I do accidentally pick up.  1. Got a call about my grandson being in dire need and my answer was "so what I never liked him in the first place."  He hung up on me.  2. Got a call the Sheriff was coming to get me for not showing up for the jury pool.  I told them I did not qualify because of my age.  He hung up on me. I did call the local sheriff and against my wishes they sent out a patrol officer to protect me... and he was a former student.  We both got a good laugh since I never needed protection before.  3.  Got a call that the IRS was going to arrest me unless I paid immediately.  I kept him on the line asking questions such as what does IRS stand for and on and on and then I finally said I was the family dog  and I would give the message to my owners who were vacationing outside the country for 2 years.   4.  And I kept the gent online asking how he called me since I did not have a phone.  I asked him if he was some sort of magician.  5.  My favorite... when the guy asked for my husband I quickly said HE WAS GONE.  Next and unexpected he gave me his sincere condolences and said he would take me off the list.  

Being older and having time on my hands has it merits.