Senior Care in Tustin CA

Today’s seniors are more active, engaged, and connected than ever before. While keeping your elderly loved ones involved in today’s technology is a fantastic way to enhance your senior care Senior-Care-Tustin-CAjourney by allowing them to maintain a higher level of independence, stay connected with their friends and family, and take more control and responsibility for their own care throughout their aging years. With these benefits, however, comes the potential for dangerous situations that could greatly diminish their quality of life and prevent them from living the life that they desire and deserve.

One of the greatest risks that comes along with all of the today’s technology is identity fraud. More than 12 million adults had their identities stolen in America last year, and a large percentage of those were elderly. There are many reasons that senior adults are more vulnerable to having their identities compromised than younger adults, including less awareness of proper technology use, emotional vulnerability and a more trusting nature, and the frequency with which seniors experience cognitive limitations such as Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Experiencing identity fraud can mean the loss of your parents’ financial stability, independence, and confidence, dramatically reducing their ability to live the active, involved, happy, and comfortable lifestyle possible.

 

Some of the ways that you and your parents’ senior health care services provider can help protect your aging loved ones from identity fraud include:

• Emphasize internet safety. The majority of identity fraud begins online. The internet provides an easy platform for accessing seniors, forming fraudulent relationships, and sourcing their financial information. Encourage your parents to utilize the internet safely and securely, including protecting their passwords, never revealing any form of personal information, only communicating with people who they already know, and knowing how to identify links that are safe to click and sites that are safe to visit.

• Freeze their credit. If your elderly loved ones are coping with cognitive limitations or challenges that make you uneasy about their ability to responsibly manage their finances, particularly the use of credit cards, get in touch with the three main credit bureaus and put a freeze on their credit. You will need to provide their complete personal information, including Social Security number, address, an ID, and a copy of a utility bill or bank statement. This freeze ensures that no one will be able to use or open a credit account in your parents’ name.

• Opt out of junk mail. It is easy to scoop up a handful of advertisements, “offers”, and other junk mail and just throw it away without thinking about all of the personal information these pieces of mail can provide to those looking to compromise their identity. Opt your elderly loved ones out of receiving this junk mail so that this information is not available. If more arrives, use a shredder to destroy the mail before discarding to protect this information.

 

Get in touch with the elder care agency in your area to find out more about identity fraud and how you and your parents’ senior health care services provider can help protect your aging loved ones from this danger.

If you or an aging loved one are considering senior care in Tustin, CA or the surrounding Orange County areas, please call us at 949-535-2211.  We provide senior care services in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Laguna Woods, Laguna Beach, Mission Viejo and surrounding areas of Orange County California.  Contact us today to learn more.