Aging in Full Bloom with Lisa Stockdale

Natural disasters, such as a tornado, flood, or blizzard, may force you to evacuate your home or shelter-in-place with little notice. It is important to have an emergency plan in place.   Older adults may face extra challenges during an emergency depending on mobility, chronic health conditions, hearing or vision loss, or even cognitive impairment.   Access to family and friends may be interrupted.   Support services that are usually available may be unavailable. Emergency planning is imperative for older adults. Creating a Plan with a Little Help from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Designate a contact person who will check on you during a disaster.   Consider speaking with your neighbors about developing a check-on-your-neighbor emergency initiative.   Create a list of emergency contacts for family and friends. Leave a copy by your phone(s) and include one in your Emergency Supply Kit.   Emergency supply kits should include a first aid kit, ba

  When temperatures are forecast to be below 32 ° F, water pipes can freeze, burst, and cause a great deal of damage. Help protect your home by taking these three steps during a freeze: 1) Let your faucets drip! Run both hot and cold water in a very fine stream in each of your faucets: kitchen sink, bathroom sinks, bathtubs, showers, etc. 2) Open your cupboards! Leave the cabinet doors under all sinks open so that the pipes will be ventilated with warm air. Leaving the bathroom and kitchen doors open helps too. 3) Heat your home! If you leave for the day or an extended period, do not turn the heat completely off. Turn it on, set to the lowest setting you wish (60 ° is recommended).

February is Heart Health Month!  Make a difference in your community by helping spread the word about strategies for preventing heart disease and encouraging people to live heart healthy lives. Caregivers are faced with the daunting challenge of providing direction, advice, encouragement and support for loved ones managing heart disease.    Managing heart disease is a scary proposition for everyone involved because the risks are great.    In addition, the tasks of learning to recognize symptoms, manage medications and make the necessary lifestyle changes can be downright overwhelming.    It’s no wonder fear and anxiety often crop up making caring for someone with heart disease difficult.   Being anxious is a normal response to heart disease or an acute episode like a heart attack.    Reassure your loved one that making the recommended lifestyle changes and taking medicines regularly and as prescribed will greatly increase the likelihood that he or she will be okay.   Other tips to redu