Home Instead Senior Care sponsors Jim Miller's Savvy Senior column

Dear Savvy Senior,

What resources can you recommend to help seniors learn how to use technology devices? I am particularly interested learning how to text, e-mail and Facebook so I can keep up with my grandkids.

Tech-Shy Senior

Dear Tech-Shy Senior,

Keeping in touch with the younger generation these days is a lot easier if you know how to use basic cell phone and computer technologies. Here are several tips and resources that can help you get started.

Hands-On Help

While seniors make up the fastest growing group of Internet and e-mail users in the U.S., they still lag way behind the younger generations. One of the best places seniors can turn to for help using their cell phone or computer is their own grandkids who have grown up with these technologies and are practically experts at operating them. If that’s not an option, ask your friends or other family members who are tech-savvy to help you.

Depending on where you live, you may also be able to get help through your public library, local senior center, schools or community college – many of which also offer basic computer and personal technology classes to seniors. To find out what’s available in your community, call your Area Agency on Aging (call 800-677-1116 to get your local number) or your public library.

Also check out SeniorNet (seniornet.org, 571-203-7100), a national organization that offers a variety of basic online computer courses as well as instructor-led workshops at around 60 learning centers throughout the U.S. A first year membership fee of $40 is required. 

How-To Resources

Another nice resource that can help you is Eldercare Locator’s new publication called “Staying Connected: Technology Options for Older Adults.”  This simple six-page guide will take you through the basic facts about how to use tools like Facebook, e-mail and texting, including privacy and safety information. The guide also introduces YouTube, Twitter, Skype, Instant Messaging and blogging – all tools that seniors can use to stay connected. To get a free copy, call 800-677-1116 or you can read it online at www.eldercare.gov.

There are also a wide variety of how-to books you can purchase that are very helpful. The “For Dummies” books (see dummies.com), for example, offer dozens of technology guides for seniors like “Computers For Seniors For Dummies,” “Facebook and Twitter For Seniors For Dummies,” “Instant Messaging For Dummies” and many others. These books can be found in book stores nationwide or online at sites like amazon.com.

And some great online resources to check out are seniorconnects.org, which provides basic computer, Internet and e-mail training materials tailored to seniors that can be viewed online or printed out for free. And teachparentstech.org, a site created by Google that offers a number of simple videos that explains how to do many computer functions.

Senior-Friendly Technology

Having the right tools can also make technology a little easier. Senior-friendly cell phones like the Jitterbug J (jitterbug.com, 800-733-6632), Doro phones sold through Consumer Cellular’s (consumercellular.com, 888-345-5509), and Just 5 (just5.com, 800-709-0509) are all easy to see, hear and operate, and they all have texting capabilities.

For computers, Hewlett-Packard’s SeniorPCs (enablemart.com, 888-640-1999), the Go Computer (thegocomputer.com, 877-671-5846) and KiwiPC (kiwipc.com) are three options developed specifically for older adults.

Simpler Options

If you find that the technology is too confusing, there are other products and services available today that can help you stay connected to your younger tech-using family members. One example is PostEgram (postegram.com), a service that will turn your family’s Facebook news and photos into stamped letters that you could receive in the mail every week.

Or, consider a Celery (mycelery.com; 866-692-3537) or Presto (presto.com, 866-428-0970), two companies that turn e-mails into printed faxes almost immediately. All of these services cost under $15 per month, but if you opt for a Celery or Presto you’ll need to purchase a fax machine too, which will run around $100.

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org.  
 

Jim Miller, creator of the syndicated Savvy Senior column

About Jim Miller

Jim Miller is the creator of Savvy Senior, a syndicated information column for older Americans and their families that is published in more than 400 newspapers and magazines nationwide. Jim is also a contributor on NBC’s “Today” show, and is the author of The Savvy Senior, The Ultimate Guide to Health, Family and Finances for Senior Citizens, (Hyperion, 2004). 

Jim is frequently quoted in articles about issues affecting senior citizens and has been featured in numerous high profile publications, including Time magazine, USA Today and The New York Times.  In addition, he has made multiple appearances on CNBC, CNN, Retirement Living Television and national public television.

The Savvy Senior column is brought to you by Home Instead Senior Care of Richmond and Tappahannock

Home Instead Senior Care provides extraordinary senior home care, personal care and companionship services to seniors in the Richmond area which includes the counties of Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico and Powhatan.  We also serve all of the Northern Neck out of our Tappahannock office.  For more information, please visit our digital brochure or call our office at 804.527.1100 anytime.

We often bemoan the curse of contemporary technology and its insidious assault on our time and attention. The distractions are endless – ringing cell phones, beeping text messages, and buzzing Twitter alerts.

But let’s face it; if you were a long-distance caregiver, or even a local one with a full time job, wouldn’t the prospect of being able to be in two places at once intrigue you just a little?

By now, you’ve probably heard of Skype, even if you’re not exactly sure what it is or how it functions. You may have witnessed how advertisers have used it peddle cookies where a young boy and his father share a goodnight ritual across three continents.

Skype allows subscribers to make free voice and video calls via the Internet, making it the perfect application to offer relief to the long-distance caregiver to help bridge the miles between themselves and their loved ones.

A recent article from the New York Times Health blog explained how a Skype-enabled video of Nancy Crawford, age 100, in Charlotte, NC and visiting her doctor was joined – from his workplace in Montgomery, AL six-hours away — by her grandson Johnnie Crawford. The geriatric care manager who’d accompanied Mrs. Crawford to the appointment provided the Skype link, bringing along a laptop with a Web cam.

Mr. Crawford, frustrated by his inability to drive the 400 miles to Charlotte as often as he’d like, appreciated the connection. “I’d do it again,” he said, “to impress upon my grandmother that I care, to show the people who care for her that I’m involved, to ask the kind of questions I’d like to ask. I hope I’m representing her the best I can.”

The addition of a Home Instead Caregiver can make the arranging of transportation to and from medical visits a headache-free procedure for the long-distance family caregiver. We can assist in finding more ways that having a home care helper can enable a family, separated by distance, to maintain an active role in the lives of their elderly loved ones.

For more information on how Home Instead Senior Care of Richmond can provide care and companionship to help aging loved ones in the Richmond and Northern Neck areas remain living independently in their homes, please give us a call at our Richmond (804.527.1100) or Tappahannock (804.443.4883) home care offices any time, or view our digital brochure at http://hisc189.digbro.com/.

Eons is one of many online communities for seniors.

We all know that “growing old is not for sissies.” The aches and pains, the medical issues, failing eyesight and hearing, fading memory – all these symptoms can make the aging process unpleasant.

When we think of the hurdles facing the daily lives of senior citizens, one that is often overlooked is that of loneliness. Currently, about one-third of people ages 75 and older live alone.

“One of the greatest challenges or losses that we face as older adults, frankly, is not about our health, but it’s actually about our social network deteriorating on us, because our friends get sick, our spouse passes away, friends pass away, or we move,” Joseph F. Coughlin, director of the AgeLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

One way many seniors are overcoming the isolation brought on by aging is by turning to online social networks like Facebook for support and companionship. The social networking site Eons.com, an online community for aging baby boomers, can provide a place for seniors to contact, interact with, and provide some of the benefits of a group of friends, while being much easier to assemble and maintain.

Of course, there’s nothing quite like old-fashioned human contact, and a Home Instead CAREGiver can provide the social and intellectual contact missing from the lives of many seniors, and with a more personal touch.

For more information on how a Home Instead CAREGiver can provide companionship, help around the house and on outings, and non-medical care to help keep you or a loved one living independently at home, call our Richmond home care office today at 804.527.1100. You can also visit our website, view our digital brochure, and connect with us via social networking sites Facebook and Twitter ( @homeinsteadRVA and @TeresaSteinfatt ).

Safety of loved ones is a top concern for caregivers, especially those caring for persons with Alzheimer’s disease. 

Memory loss and confusion can set in without warning.  For example, a loved one might set out on a walk or errand alone, wander off and not be able to return home safely.

Currently scheduled for retail sale this summer, the Aetrex Ambulator® GPS Shoe by GTX Corp will provide millions of caregivers the means to help easily find those afflicted with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia who wander and become lost.

How does it work?

A miniaturized GPS chip and cellular device is embedded in the shoe. The shoe then continuously tracks the location and movement history of its wearer, relaying the information to a monitoring center through cellular networks.

Authorized parties are able to instantly log-on, or receive alerts, via a secure Internet portal and pinpoint the current location of the targeted user on an interactive map.

How much will it cost?

GTX Corp is projecting the cost will be around $200 to $300. The company is anticipating availability for purchase in the spring of 2010 through the Aetrex-owned website www.gpsshoe.com and a select group of assisted living facilities.

If you would like more information on these shoes, visit GTX Corp’s site at www.gpsshoe.com.

For information on how Home Instead Senior Care’s CAREGivers can provide companionship and services that nourish the mind, body, and spirit, and help seniors remain living independently longer in their homes, please contact our Richmond home care office at 804.527.1100 or our Tappahannock home care office at 804.443.4885.

We just released our new digital brochure to give you some brief highlights of in-home senior care services that are available to you right here in both the Richmond VA area, as well as the Middle Penninsula and Northern Neck.  We love it because it so professional and a great representation of our company.  It’s easy to view and since so many people, even seniors, are online these days, we felt this was an easy way to showcase how we can help both Boomers with aging parents as well as Seniors alike.

It’s also a great mini video to show when we present at or visit local independent living and assisted living facilities, case management companies, home health and hospice services, hospitals, nursing homes, doctors offices, etc. 

Enjoy,

Teresa & Torsten Steinfatt, owners of Home Instead Senior Care of Richmond VA for over 14 years.

Home Instead Senior Care of Richmond VA: Digital Brochure