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LIFE SAVING ORGANIZING TIPS  How to Protect Your Aging Parents
By Debby Bitticks

Moms these days don’t just have to keep their children and husband’s health information organized and easily accessible but also their parents’ information. If, God forbid, something happens, you’ll want to have everything at the ready.

Here are 5 Reasons to Get Your Aging Parents’ Vital Information Organized:

• Having immediate access to personal, medical, legal and financial information allows you to provide greater care for your loved ones

• Keeping vital information accessible allows you to answer critical medical questions with certainty when an emergency arises

• Organizing critical information increases peace-of-mind, especially if you live across the country from an aging parent

• Everyone is so incredibly busy there are just not enough hours in the day: when receiving an emergency phone call regarding your aging parent, having medical and financial information readily available can help to significantly decrease stress levels for all involved

• In an emergency, having personal and medical information at your fingertips can literally save your parent’s life when there is a situation where every moment matters—the more information a medical team is given, the more effectively they can diagnose and treat.

Here are 5 Tips on How to Get Your Aging Parents’ Vital Information Organized:

• Gather personal, medical, legal and financial information and keep it in ONE location

• Give copies to all individuals who may participate as a caregiver

• For confidential information, simply write in the contact person and phone number who has the information, such as a will/last testament or banking information

• Inform your parents how you will safeguard their confidential information to protect them from identity theft

• Explain to your aging parent that their participation in gathering this vital information while they are healthy is a gift to you (as the adult child) since you will be the one to handle an emergency when it arises.

Debby Bitticks, CEO of Delphi Health Products, Inc. is an intergenerational expert and author of “The Senior Organizer” (HCI Books, $16.95). The Senior Organizer is a book with free downloadable forms online at www.biobinders.com  that guides you through the process to organize all vital information.