Fewer than 200,000 people over the age of 65 live in New Hampshire, but
that number has skyrocketed 24% since 2000. As seniors live longer lives,
that number is only expected to increase in the coming years.
This leaves the state in a situation where it must provide for this growing
population. The New Hampshire Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services
(BEAS) is already going that, offering services and programs to make sure
the lives of seniors in the state remain happy and healthy.
Those services include:
-- Adult Residential Care Services: Including meal preparation, homemaker
services, personal care and transportation.
-- Adult Protection: Investigating reports of the abuse, neglect of
exploitation of New Hampshire seniors.
-- Balancing Incentive Program: Increasing access to services to allow
seniors to remain in their own homes.
-- Behavioral Health: Promoting “respect, recovery, and full community
inclusion for adults, including older adults, who experience a mental
illness.”
-- Commodity Supplemental Food Program: Free food and nutrition information
for low-income seniors.
-- Family Caregiver Support Services: Assistance and support to the
caregivers of senior family members.
-- Food Stamps: Coupons to buy food for low-income New Hampshire
residents.
-- Meals on Wheels: Meals delivered to the home of seniors who have trouble
getting out of the house.
-- New Hampshire Community Passport Program: Help in transitioning seniors
from nursing homes back to their own houses.
-- Nutrition & Physical Activity: Information on healthy eating and
exercise
-- Prescription Drug Assistance: Help for low-income seniors to pay for
prescription drugs.
-- Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program: Fresh locally grown fruits and
vegetables from New Hampshire farmers during the summer for low-income
seniors.
-- Transportation Assistance: Helping seniors get to and from medical
appointments and shopping outings.
If there is one thing that can help keep seniors safe it is a medical alert
system. Without such a system, a senior living alone can languish for days
after a fall or other types of medical emergencies until someone finally
comes and checks up on you. By that time, your injuries could be
irreversible, or worse.
But with a medical alert system, all you have to do is press your alert
button and help would be on the way. You could even set up your system to
have a monitor check up on you once a day to make sure you are all right.
If for some reason you are unconscious and cannot answer the call, help
would automatically be sent to you.
Shopping for a medical alert system can be a bit confusing; it appears each
company offers the same services.
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