OHIO ELDER LAW BLAWG

Facebook: A new tool for "grandparent scam"

Watch those privacy settings...

The Better Business Bureau of Northeast California is warning older adults about a telephone scam that preys on grandparents by duping them into thinking they assisting grandchildren in an emergency. 

 

In the scam, the grandparent gets a call from a young person claiming to be the grandson or daughter who is in legal trouble out of the country and needs needs emergency cash.  To stress the urgency, calls are usually made in the middle of the night, and the scammer insists that funds be sent by wire or overnight delivery.  While in previous scams grandparents could test the scammer by asking personal questions only certain people could answer, such as the name of a childhood pet, their nickname, or the college they attended, the new scammers use information garnered from social networking sites.

 

The bureau said a Sacramento grandmother was contacted this week by young woman who claimed to be her granddaughter. The girl said she was in trouble in Canada and needed the victim to wire her $4,500 to get out of jail.  Even after asking several questions, the grandmother said she was absolutely convinced the girl was her granddaughter.  The BBB said the scammer was looking at a Facebook page the real granddaughter had posted, and simply reading off dozens of facts about the family, addresses, and where she went to college.  The information was easily accessible because the granddaughter's Facebook privacy settings weren't high enough, allowing her account to be viewed by just about anyone.

Full Story

My Other Guilty Pleasure...The Wii

So, two Christmases ago, I bought the kids (ok, who am I kidding, I bought the kids and myself) a Nintendo Wii.  Its been fun to play, both with the kids, and with others around the world. (In a technologically savvy moment I got it hooked up to the internet so I can play other people I know as well as complete strangers).

Oh yeah...drop me a mail if you want to try to beat me in Super Mario Brothers or Super Smash Brothers.  If you want to play me in Guitar Hero, please know that I will likely use my son as a ringer, and he is pretty darned good.  I stink at it.

But I digress.  I really have fun playing my Wii and like it.  Apparently other people like it too. In a recent California study elderly people who exhibit depression and then play Wii Sports three times a week are likely to see their depression deminish.

In a pilot study, researchers found use of Wii Sports significantly improved mood and mental health-related quality of life in older adults with sub-syndromal depression. "The study suggests encouraging results from the use of the exergames," Dilip V.Jeste, M.D. said. "More than one-third of the participants had a 50-percent or greater reduction of depressive symptoms. any had a significant improvement in their mental health-related quality of life and increased cognitive stimulation."  Jeste is a Professor of psychiatry and neurosciences at University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine.

So, with all this snow, maybe we need a little wii time.

Full article here.  

P.S.  Oh, in case you were wondering, my original guilty pleasure was coffee.

Future of Aging in Place?

A model home is currently on display at the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (www.aahsa.org) Annual Meeting & Exposition in Chicago.  Called the "Idea House," it features recent developments in universal design and technology which is intended to improve older people's quality of life.  Additionally, the hope is that staying at home will reduce health care costs, encouraging healthy behavior change, safety, and cargiver support.

More than 90 percent of the products on display at the AAHSA Idea House are on the market today. More are coming. Product highlights include:

• A medication dispenser to automatically organize, remind, dispense and monitor medication use. Pharmacies can even be notified when refills are needed!

• Electronic distribution of medical records to doctors, family members and caregivers.  I have clients whose families have to struggle to get information to properly care for their aging relative. Medical record distribution would enable family to timely respond to problems that might otherwise be missed.

• Automatic personal emergency response systems, including fall detection We are seeing improvement in these devices, and fall detection is an interesting addition.  It is hard to imagine, but these falls in the home can be terribly debilitating.  A recent client of mine died shortly after getting treatment because she fell and spent several days on the floor, which led to dehydration and muscle atrophy and contractures.  An ERS might have avoided her from suffering in such a way.

• A peephole system that puts the image of the person outside your door on an LCD screen large enough that you can actually see who it is!

• Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL), a wearable robotic suit that increases a person's strength by reading the wearer's bio-electric signals. The suit responds to the wearer's movement by engaging robotic limbs strapped to a person's arms and legs. Stroke patients may be able to walk and nurses and therapists have extra strength to move individuals who need assistance.

• Height-adjustable kitchen and bath appliances.

• A Sleep Monitoring System that monitors the quality of a person's sleep, such as breathing and heart rate to enable caregivers to detect sleep-related markers of disease, like urinary tract infections and depression, earlier.

It will be interesting in the coming years to see the adaptation of technological discovery into the daily lives of the aging and disabled. 

For more information, visit the ASHAA website.

-Todd Bartimole