Cypress Program Helps Protect Older Residents : Mail Carriers Watch for Signs of Distress at Homes, Summon Aid

Mail carriers in Cypress have become guardians of senior citizens, as a result of a citywide program in which the carriers notify the city’s senior center if they suspect an elderly resident has suffered an incapacitating illness or injury.

The program, called Postal Alert, is offered free of charge through the Cypress Recreation and Park District’s Senior Citizens Center. It currently has about 50 participants.

Participants in the program paste a distinctive sticker inside their mailboxes that alerts mail carriers to look for signs that the elderly resident may be injured or ill. These clues include an overflowing mailbox, newspapers piled up outside the home or a porch light that has been left on, said Ruth Raheb, director of the senior center.

If a carrier finds such clues, he or she notifies a post office supervisor, who, in turn, calls the senior center. A representative of the center then goes to the home and checks on the person living there. If there is no response at the door, the senior center representative calls either of two people the resident has provided with a key and authorized to enter the home.

Raheb recalled the time one elderly woman fell and broke a hip and was helped by a mail carrier. The carrier saw that mail from the day before had not been removed from the woman’s mailbox, the senior center was notified and the woman, who could not answer the door or the telephone, was discovered and taken to a hospital.