by Faye
I worked in an environment where I encountered many elderly clients. One frequent experience I had with one of my favorite clients was losing her wallet, papers or keys. She was still driving for in town shopping and visitng our facility but she was beginning to forget where she put things. One day it took me and the director over an hour to help her find her coin purse which she had "strategically" placed in her undergarments for safety. Thank goodness she needed to go to the restroom or we may have never found it!
My safety tip would be to make copies of driver's license, social security card, bank account numbers, house and car keys. It can be so upsetting to an elderly person to be "stranded" and not be able to find their keys or some other important paper or document. If you have copies you can take care of them in the short term and find the items a little later. AND, if you never find the other set of keys, at least you were prepared.
This is also a good way to prevent or at least minimize the adverse effects of identity theft if your loved one becomes a victim. By having all the documents copied and in a secure place in your home, you will be able to:
1. Call and cancel credit cards
2. Alert police of lost or stolen driver's license.
3. Notify social security administration of lost or stolen Social Security card.
4. Notify bank of lost or stolen bank checks and possibly create a new account.
Come to think of it, I need to do this for myself even though I would not consider myself elderly!