June 2005 Ezine Linking Seniors, Family Caregivers and Business Owners

You can read our ezine on line at Back Issues

Do Seniors Approve of Your Service?, by Jean Van Ryzin
Caregivers At Risk For Stress-Related Illnesses, by Barbara Mascio
Free! Attend the Pre-White House Conference on Aging!
Be an Advocate for Seniors
Recipe Contest
Calendar of Events
Protect Your Computer
Words of Wisdom from Grandpa Rocker
Writers Wanted!

Do Seniors Approve of Your Service?

The editor of the national trade newspaper, Selling to Seniors was kind enough to feature Senior Approved Services on the front page of their paper. Thanks Jean! To request a full copy of the May Issue, or to subscribe to the paper, see Selling to Seniors To learn more about their paper and other services offered, please visit Marketing Tools

We've recreated the entire article, and you can read it on Do Seniors Approve of Your Service?

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Caregivers At Risk For Stress-Related Illnesses

More than 50 million people, provide care for a chronically ill, disabled or aged family member or friend during any given year.

Most family members readily jump in to help a loved one and will put their own lives on hold. Only 46 percent expect to be caregivers longer than two years. In fact the average length of time spent on caregiving is about eight years, with approximately one third of respondents providing care for 10 years or more.
(Source: MetLife Juggling Act Study, Balancing Caregiving with Work and the Costs of Caregiving, Met Life Mature Market Institute, November 1999.)

When my husband asked if his father could stay with us, I assumed it would be temporary … nor did I realize both men assumed that since I’m retired and home, that I would be his primary caregiver. This is not how I envisioned my second marriage to be and certainly not how I planned my retirement years… Janet W. of Tampa Florida shared with us when she phoned to find a local service in her area that would provide some respite care.

68 percent of the calls received at Senior Approved Services originate from the adult daughter (or daughter-in-law) between the ages of 48 and 58. Most are employed, full or part-time. Many are frightened of the responsibility of caring for a loved one and rightly so.

The lack of training available for the family caregiver to provide adequate care, not knowing what services might be available, not knowing what kinds of questions they ought to ask of potential service providers…the full gambit of the 'unknown' adds to this stress.

Couple this with the guilt that often arises when this family member must bring 'strangers' in to the care plan, realizing the task is too overwhelming only further exasperates the stress.

Stress cannot necessarily be eliminated, let’s face it, providing care for an older adult or someone with a disability or chronic illness, is stressful.

You can learn, however, to prevent the negative effects of stress from harming your physical body and emotional state of mind, possibly even eliminating stress-related-illnesses.

If you watch TV, you’re sure to see a magic pill out there that promises to fix it all for you. What if you could manipulate your physical and mental well being without the expense and without the chemical side effects of the magic pill?

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Pre-White House Conference on Aging!

FYI -Senior Approved Services hosted a poll from our Web site from March of 2005 to May 2005. We received 3,187 submissions. We asked 'What is Most Important to YOU?' offering the pre-determined topics that will be discussed in Washington this year. If you'd like to see the way folks from around the country answered these questions, see Poll Results

Topics For Discussion

• Income Security and Employment
  
• Housing
  
• Caregiving
  
• Healthcare/Selfcare
  
• Education, Recreation, and Civic Engagement

For complete details, see White House Conference

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Be an Advocate for Seniors

Ruth is 87 years old this year and has been living alone since 1997. She is in good health, however the daily chores around the home became increasingly difficult. Ruth turned to her church bulletin and found a 'Home Care Company' advertised.

Ruth is not unique in the fact that she is widowed and lives alone. According to the ‘2002 A Profile of Older Americans’ published by the Administration on Aging (http://www.aoa.gov/aoa/stats/profile/4.html) 41% of women age 65 and over, are widowed and live alone.

"The ad was in the church bulletin, I assumed this was a good company," her voice cracking from the pain and embarrassment this home care service eventually caused her.

Unfortunately, Ruth is also not alone in the fact that she became victim to fraud. According to U.S. Senator Larry Craig, past ranking member of the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, ‘Vulnerable elders are being abused, neglected and exploited within their own homes and communities at an a alarming rate.’

"The lady they sent to me was well groomed, she was polite, and I had no reason to distrust her. You could tell she was from a good family …" Ruth went on to justify how quickly she was robbed of $4,200.

Continue reading at Advocate See also Advocating for Seniors

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Recipe Contest

Our latest submissions include a recipe for Chocolate Mousse, submitted by Sapna M. from New Delhi India, Avocado & Chick Pea Salad, submitted by Yael B. of Ontario Canada, Mac & Tom, submitted by Shannon S. of New Hampshire CT. To view these yummy recipes and others see

Recipes

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Calendar of Events

Post your upcoming events, speaking engagements and community programs for free. Inform healthcare professionals about networking opportunities! Invite Seniors and family caregivers to your workshops!

Events featured this month include free workshops for caregivers, free pampering days for professionals, classes offer CEU credits and more! See June 2nd for a free workshop on handling stress sponsored by Benjamin Rose ~ Simple Ways to Give Yourself a Break!

If you are in the financial planning or insurance business, you won't want to miss the 5th Annual Selling to Seniors Conference! It occurs in October, but we're reminding you to reserve your spot now. Senior Approved Services is one of the media sponsors for this event.

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Protect Your Computer

If you are a person that's open to learning from other people's mistakes, then I urge you to learn from mine.

My computer was recently hit by invading cloaked email messages that somehow got past my Norton Utilities. It's a long story, but I have found some excellent software programs that stop spam before it enters the email accounts. See Business Resource Page and look under the category, 'Protect Your Computer'.

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Work VS Prison

Work VS Prision

IN PRISON.......you spend the majority of your time in an 10X10 cell.
AT WORK.......you spend the majority of your time in an 8X8 cubicle.

IN PRISON......you get three meals a day.
AT WORK......you get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it.

IN PRISON.......you get time off for good behavior.
AT WORK.......you get more work for good behavior.

IN PRISON.......the guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
AT WORK.......you must often carry a security card and open all the doors for yourself.

IN PRISON.......you can watch TV and play games.
AT WORK......you could get fired for watching TV and playing games.

IN PRISON......you get your own toilet.
AT WORK.....you have to share the toilet with some people who pee on the seat.

IN PRISON.......they allow your family and friends to visit.
AT WORK.......you aren't even supposed to speak to your family.

IN PRISON......all expenses are paid by the taxpayers with no work required.
AT WORK.......you get to pay all your expenses to go to work, and they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.

IN PRISON.......you spend most of your life inside bars wanting to get out.
AT WORK ......you spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside bars.

IN PRISON ......you must deal with sadistic wardens.
AT WORK......they are called managers.

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Writers Wanted

Senior Approved Services publishes this free ezine each month. The subscribers (well over 5,000 folks now) are a combination of seniors, family caregivers and owners of businesses. This is a unique audience, one looking for information, education, and expertise in issues affecting the senior citizen, the family caregiver and the businesses that serve this population.

If you enjoy writing and would like your articles read by folks across the United States, we have a great opportunity available for you.

Please note, our ezine does not accept sponsors or advertisment and so this is a work of love, not one of profit. Having said that, we cannot pay you.

We will feature you as a contributing author and include your bi-line, and a link to your home page and/or contact information. We will also provide you with free advertising space on our business resource page on Business Resource Page

Businesses frequent our Business Resource page, you never know. Someone may be in search of a content writer for web sites, ezines, magazines and newspapers.

We have received hundreds of requests from family caregivers to provide a venue of support, education and sharing. We may (we're experimenting right now) offer a blog which would provide a way for family caregivers to communicate with one another. If we decide to do this, we will need a host of writers to submit helpful articles and timely information for this group.

We'd like to see a sample of your writing. The next ezine is scheduled for July 1. We plan to feature an article on the subject of Independence. Compose an article and/or essay of 500 words or less on anything that has to do with subject 'Independence.' Please include your complete contact information and then fax it to 216-883-3159 or email it in Word Format to news@qualityeldercare.com

Senior Approved Services has two other opportunities available ~ see Telecommuting Position and Advocate