(Email sent this evening to Clients, Families and Caregivers)

I hope you are having a lovely Christmas holiday today!

After yesterday's early storm"heads up", I'm back to encourage you in your plans to prepare households and our clients for what is now being talked about as a blizzard: up to 20" of snow and 50-60mph winds, beginning Sunday afternoon and into sometime Monday. This is being predicted to be "heart attack snow" -- meaning it's so heavy that people have heart attacks exerting themselves while clearing it. This kind of heavy snow might be hard to keep cleared from roads and driveways, and street plows when they pass by will deposit "cement-like" snow and ice at the ends of driveways.  High winds with heavy snow can also bring down power lines; power outages should be prepared for.

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Caring Companion Connections will present this talk on Thursday, May 13, 2010 from 7-8:30 PM at the Concord Carlisle-Cable TV Studio at Concord-Carlisle High School. It will be recorded for future broadcast.  Hope you can be there! (Our speaker's fee will be donated to the MinuteMan Senior Services Meals-On-Wheels program).

Aging, Disability & New Technologies: Real Hype or Real Help?

Safety alert technology. Online communication services. Remote medical sensors. There are so many devices to help us monitor our health and communicate. And new ones on the way.

Are you confused about the new technologies to help senior citizens, the disabled and their caregivers? Some are truly beneficial to elders, the disabled, their families and caregivers, while others are mere gadgets or toys that aren't a good value. We will help you separate the real hype from the real help, allowing wiser choices in this bewildering, rapidly expanding marketplace. We will review some of the high tech tools on the market, highlighting ones we think have the ability to help you stay connected, happy, safe and healthy. Included will be remote medical monitoring devices, safety alert technology, and consumer technology customized for seniors and the disabled. You will come away better able to assess new technologies for yourself.

To Register: Call 978-318-1540 or register online for Course Number #4321 here: http://www.ace.colonial.net. Fee: $10 donation. Location: 500 Walden Street, Concord (enter the front left door where glowing Adult Education sign is showing).  This event is sponsored by Concord-Carlisle Adult & Community Education.

Presenters: Jim Reynolds has been a National Practice Leader for IBM in the area of mobile and wireless technology. His family has owned and run the largest private-pay home care agencies in Florida and Kansas since 1992. Continuing the family business, he is the owner of Caring Companion Connections in Concord.

Deborah Bier, PhD, has been a health care educator, author, and wellness coach for 20 years. She holds a doctorate in counseling and has helped hundreds of individuals and families to live better with chronic illness and disability. She is the director of the Concord office of Caring Companion Connections.

A client wrote to us recently after we had provided caregivers for her mother while Mom visited.   Mom loved Mary Ann,

one of our wonderful Caring Companions, and "the online reports are GREAT. As I’m sure you know, it’s wonderful to get a sense of what Mom has done during the day, how she’s been feeling, etc.  I have cut and pasted the reports and sent to my siblings so they can get a sense of it too ..."

And I laughed.  It's so much easier than that!  You don't need to cut and paste, or do anything at all to inform the rest of the family.  Those days are over, if you want them to be.

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