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Help seniors beat the heat this summer

Blog

June 6, 2016

Summer doesn’t officially start until June 20, but the heat and humidity have already moved in.  The heat can be dangerous for seniors, who are especially vulnerable during the summer.  People’s ability to notice changes in their body temperature decreases with age.  Many seniors have chronic health conditions that make it more difficult to adapt to the heat.  In addition, medications that seniors take may lead to dehydration, worsening the effects from the heat.
This summer, be sure to check on your parents, your neighbors, and your friends who are elderly.  Encourage them to drink plenty of liquids and stay indoors during the heat of the day.  Make sure you know the warning signs of heat-related illnesses so that you can assess whether your loved one may be suffering from over exposure to the heat.
For those seniors in our community who do not have the safety net of family, friends or neighbors, they have Senior Resources.  Our Meals on Wheels program doesn’t just deliver meals.  The meal delivery each day is an opportunity for us to check on home-bound seniors and see how they are doing.  We train volunteers to notify us if they feel that something is not right with a senior.  We then follow up to ensure that they are safe and healthy.  For those receiving a weekly delivery of frozen meals, we have a telephone reassurance program that calls seniors on a daily basis to see how they’re doing.  A trained volunteer calls the senior at a scheduled time each day to make sure he or she is happy, healthy and safe.
That peace of mind delivered by our volunteers is why we say Meals on Wheels is “more than a meal.”