While the older person's mind is still clear, spend a few hundred yuan at a notary office to have a written document made that states who will be their guardian in the future. Without this document, once the older person can no longer make decisions, the order set by law applies: first the spouse, then parents and children, then other close relatives. If family members fight over it, the residents' committee (ๅฑ ๅงไผ), the village committee (ๆๅงไผ), the civil affairs department (ๆฐๆฟ้จ้จ) or a court appoints one.
People who defraud the elderly often start with small gifts and warm concern to build up trust, and then take a large sum in one go. Scammers also often insist "don't tell anyone." Agree on a rule beforehand: any payment above a certain amount has to be mentioned to a particular person first. That way the family gets to know, and the payment is also delayed a little.
Sales pitches and scams depend on pressure in the moment, to make you pay before you have time to think. When people get excited, they believe exaggerated ads more easily, and older people are more easily persuaded than younger ones. Agree on a line with the older person beforehand: "I have to go home and talk it over with my family." They can say it at any time, it gives them a way out on the spot, and they can decide after calming down at home.
Eldercare schemes that ask the older person to pay first and promise a return are all the same fraud: cards, buying beds, buying retirement apartments, travel-retirement, and meetings selling senior products. Under the rules, money lost this way is yours to bear. In one case someone took 136,000,000 yuan (1.36ไบฟ) by supposedly reserving beds in a retirement apartment, and harmed more than 2,100 people.
For an older person who already had a pressure sore before hip-fracture surgery, the chance of dying within 30 days is about 20% higher. Switching to a powered air mattress cuts new pressure sores by about 60%. In ICUs, sensor reminders that got patients turned on schedule cut them by about 70%, while lying people face down gave far more pressure sores. Every day, look at the tailbone, heels, hips, shoulders and back, and if you see a red area that doesn't fade when pressed, contact a nurse or doctor the same day.
For women aged 70 and over, having cataract surgery on the first eye promptly meant about 34% fewer falls in a year, and fewer broke a bone. But the number of people who fell at all did not drop. For the second eye, no clear difference in falls was seen. Among older people who had the surgery, hip fractures within a year were about 16% lower.
In the U.S., fractures among people aged 65 and over from falling while walking a dog on a leash were about 1,700 people in 2004 and about 4,400 in 2017, and about 80% were women. The hip was the most common fracture site, and nearly 30% were hospitalized. About three-quarters of hand injuries from dog leashes happened when the leash was wrapped around the hand and the dog yanked. So hold the leash in the palm, keep it short, and train the dog not to lunge.
