Senior Support in New Hampshire

The Goose Solution , At Least

2010-03-03T10:36:00.000-08:00

The thing on my mind is geese. It has been a while since i posted and in the end, the only success I have had over the past year is getting rid of the Canadian geese that have been such an annoyance. I have been waging a multi-year war against the geese and have tried many solutions to get rid of them. I have tried goose repellent, anti goose decoys, noise makers designed to scare the geese, and all with only limited effect.

No matter what it seemed that the geese eventually got used to what I had put out to get rid of them and started walking, eating, and of course pooping on the lawn. Goose poop has been an incredible pain to clean up. I don't know if the geese are smart or the geese are dumb but they adapt.

The solution I finally found was using a goose fence to get rid of the geese. This has really proved to be the only effective solution I have come up with. It really works, and was not at all difficult to set up or live with. I was able to get it set up in a few minutes and whenever I want ot use teh waterfront I just move it (nothing permanent) and then put it back when I am done. I have actually seen the geese cruise by on the pond a few times but not come up onto my lawn because of the fence. I was a little concerned about how it would look, but it turns out that from a littel ways away you realy can not see it at all.

Senior Housing, Nursing care or assisted living?

2009-04-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

So it looks like we are finally going to have to make a decision between some kind of senior housing and assisted living or a real nursing care facility. Just one of the joys of caring for a senior. My uncle fell getting out of bed recently which resulted in me getting a call from the emergency room very early on a Sunday morning. Fortunately he didn't break anything, but it did lead to a hospital stay which transitioned to a nursing home for rehab which lead to another short hospital stay and then back to the nursing home in the assisted living section. However, we really need to find him a permanent housing option as even he now realizes that he can no longer live alone. The costs of nursing care and assisted living are pretty steep. For that kind of money per day we could put him in a nice hotel.

So the question we are asking ourselves is what is the best housing option for him. Senior housing or assisted living? It really feels to me like he is not quite stable enough to be in senior housing so I think the assisted living section of the local nursing home is probably the right answer. But then we have to worry about the cost, and how much money the nursing home has to drain out of him before medicare kicks in. I really hate all of this!

He can't care for himself but I do not want to care for him 24x7. The staff at the nursing home seems pretty good. He was there a few years back and had a pretty bad experience with the care, though he was in the rehabilitation section of the nursing home them. Since then they seem to have upgraded their staff and the assisted living section seems to be nicer overall.

He want to move to a senior housing community that we looked at but I just don't think that he will be able to be independent enough. He likes it because of the people that live there, but senior housing communities are really not set up to provide constant or even daily care. He would rely on his neighbors which both isn't fair or safe. they didn't move to a senior housing community to help out the guy next door, they moved there so they would have lees to take care of them when they were living in a private home. I also think that even if we moved him into the senior housing that he likes, we would just have to move him to a nursing home within a year anyway, and I don't have the energy to move a picky senior twice.

One final note, it is getting to be geese season again and at least we won't have to deal with that problem of how to get rid of geese at his old house.

Senior Care Resources - a growing topic

2009-02-25T11:47:00.000-08:00

Senior care and resources for those provide care for senior citizen seems to be an ever growing topic. I came across another site about how to care for senior citizens that has resource information on senior care and is targeted at those who care for seniors. I guess as the population ages this becomes a bigger and bigger issue. If I had money I'd think about investing in nursing homes, assisted living, and senior housing.

On the bright side, if the senior care world is growing there will be more support available. Of course on the not-so-bright side are we going to start competing for resources? I am already worried that the amount of time and money being spent on senior care in this country is starting to become a drain on our economy. Just look at the federal budget and see how much of it goes to medicare and to social security. Now imagine that the number on senior citizens that the government (i.e us taxpayers) are helping to pay for the care of grows until half the country is paying for the care of the other half. People are going to start thinking of senior citizens as a drain on the whole nation. Right now we each only have the drain of the senior that we are caring for.

I guess back to the bright side, there will be an economy based on the care giving industry. Just like we had an economy of people working at Walmart to earn money to buy things at Walmart, maybe we will ahve an economy of poeple working in nursing homes and assisted living facilities to pay taxes so that the countril can affort to keep it's ever growing number of seniors in the same nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Senior care, the gift that keeps on giving...

Seniors health insurance = scamming seniors

2009-02-05T06:56:00.000-08:00

So, why do senior citizens appear to health insurance companies as easy marks for "senior health insurance" plans that in the end aim to rip off our most vulnerable elder citizens? Why can't they thin "you are a senior citizen, a veteran who fought for his country, we'll be nice to you". Instead they seem to think "you are a senior citizen, likely elderly and trusting, we'll take advantage of you." I'm sure this isn't just a New Hampshire problem.

A few years ago my uncle had a supplemental plan to cover medical costs beyond medicare. It included prescriptions and cost him about $75 per month. We were working to save him money, and we get an offer for a new senior supplemental insurance plan that is only $19 per month. No prescription benefits, but he uses a senior program and does pretty well with prescription prices. With him living on mostly social security,and the prospect of another cold NH winter with high heating bills, it seemed like a good option. So we switched him to the new plan.

The first year things went fine. But remember, to these companies, seniors are marks to be ripped off. The next year when it becomes time to renew the plan, the new price is $42 per month. More than twice what is was the first year. Then this year we got a renewal notice and the price has gone up to $72 per month. $19 to $72 in three years. That is much more than health costs have really gone up. They are just trying to rip off senior citizens because they think they are too naive to figure out what is going on. It just gets me going.

Needless to say I am out looking for a new plan.

But really, if you see a senior citizen standing on a bus you get up to offer them a seat (maybe the insurance people don't but I'm pretty sure even they do) so how come they can then go to their office and spend all day thinking of ways to take money from senior citizens just becasue they are senior citizens?

Also, a quick plug for a guy I found who does snow plowing in Hollis and who was willing to help me out of a bind even though he is not my regular plower.

Resources for seniors

2009-01-25T11:40:00.000-08:00

It isn't actually finished yet, but a friend of mine is putting together a resource listing for seniors in New Hampshire, which also should be very useful for those of us who help take care of seniors. I would give it a week or so, but check out www.seniorsnh.com - Resources for Senior Citizens in New Hampshire.

I've started a rant on insurance, because I think some of the new insurance plans are a scam aimed at ripping off seniors. As soon as the rant is done I'll post it.

The things we do for seniors

2009-01-22T07:01:00.000-08:00

One thing that makes life very difficult for seniors, and we are rarely in short supply of in New Hampshire is snow. I had asked my brothers boys to go help but as my elder uncle described it, "they showed up with two men and one short handled shovel to try to do the roof, so I sent them away.

This seems as appropriate as anything for a first post. There are resources out there for living, and transportation, and fuel assistance, but snow? Nope. So there we were, my husband and I, at dusk in waist deep snow roof raking my uncles house. I know he lives in a neighborhood of senior citizens and I felt bad for them with their unshoveled roofs but it took over an hour for us to do just the one.

Oh well, the things we do to help our seniors....