Emergency registry aimed at saving lives

By Kathleen Heren

   Because September is Emergency Preparedness Month, “Senior Digest” is reprinting the column I wrote earlier this year about the state’s Special Needs Emergency Regis-try. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to register if you are at home receiving services, or if you or a family member is disabled. Being a part of the registry may save your life during a disaster.


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Alliance heats up monitoring efforts

By Kathleen Heren

    Each summer I like to remind people that although most of us simply become uncomfortable when it is warm, the same temperature can be lethal to the elderly.
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Officials must deter financial exploitation

By Kathleen Heren

    An article by Tracey Brenton in the May 15 “Sunday Providence Journal” detailed how an elderly woman from Warwick left quite a large sum of money and property to her caregiver. The woman had never married, but did have four brothers who, according to the article, she disliked intently as well as their children. The woman appeared to have been quite cantankerous her entire life and her philosophy was very simple: My way or the highway. The only problem with an attitude like that is there will come a time in our lives when no matter what; our health will fail, causing us to become dependent on others.

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Cut government costs to save aides' jobs

By Kathleen Heren

   Call me a cynic, but the moment I heard House Speaker Gordon D. Fox announce the governor’s tax increases would not be acceptable, I knew it would only be a matter of time before one of the legislators would suggest more cuts in the Department of Human Services budget, which of course includes nursing homes. On April 16, there it was in “The Providence Journal, Rep. Robert A. Watson pontificating on making up the budget deficit by taking funds from human services.

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Seminar clarifies muddy health coverage issues

By Kathleen Heren

    Health care reform has many people lost in a quagmire of misinformation. A recent seminar at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence was aimed at bringing some clarity to the federal Affordable Care Act with presentations about the new pre-existing condition insurance and consumer assistance plans.
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