Watching and Caring for Our Elderly : Keeping Tabs on Seniors, Making Sure They’re OK Is Neighborly, Wise Thing to Do
Under the best of circumstances, the “golden years” offer the opportunity to be as busy or laid back as you like, to live the kind of life you wish. But as the body ages, the chances for mishaps increase. And with the number of those over 60 increasing in Orange County, individuals and groups that keep tabs on senior citizens can provide a valuable service.
The Garden Grove post office and the city’s Police Department recently started a program to look out for seniors living alone. Residents can have a sticker placed inside their mailbox telling the letter carrier that if the mail starts to pile up, call a postal supervisor, who will then call police to investigate.
That is a simple system that deserves imitation elsewhere, and the post office that delivers to Leisure World in Laguna Hills is considering adopting the technique. Given the high percentage of elderly in Leisure World, a community known across the nation for its retirement living, the program would seem to be a natural.
A spokeswoman for the postal service in Orange County was right in noting that there is a risk of invading someone’s privacy if officials are immediately notified when mail starts to pile up. But a resident who requests it sidesteps that issue.
Last July a mail carrier in Laguna Hills’ Leisure World did summon the retirement community’s security guards after seeing one woman had not been picking up her mail. The woman was found to have suffered a stroke and rescuers said it appeared she had been in the house, partly paralyzed and barely conscious, for 48 hours. The woman’s grateful nephew sent a Christmas card to the mail carrier, Shelly Nieblas.
The ideal would be for children to watch out for their parents, or neighbors to look after one another, but unfortunately that is not always possible. Experts estimate that about 30% of those over 60 in Orange County--and more than half over 85--live alone. This spring the Orange County Area Agency on Aging plans to start offering more welcome assistance for seniors. The agency will install a computerized telephone system to make automatic daily checkup calls to elderly persons wanting the service. The agency is also recruiting volunteers to become telephone friends with seniors who live alone. The effort can benefit both sides, helping those getting the calls to lessen loneliness at least temporarily, and providing the callers with the sense of having contributed to a feeling of community.