How Do You Check In On Elderly Parents?

[Anonymous]

My mother's 71 and while many 71 year olds are youthful, my mother's not, and I worry about her. I haven't been able to get in touch with her today, which is very unusual. I'm getting ready to drive over there, but in the future, having a neighborhood contact or something would be nice. Does anyone do something like this? What do you do?

[Anonymous]

I would talk to her neighbors and ask if you can have their phone numbers so you can contact them in the future if you're concerned. My parents are 4 hours away, and I would call any of their friends if I was concerned. I have phone numbers for 4-5 of them. It's good that you're close enough to be able to drive over.

[Anonymous]

some people have a mail carrier who is willing to check on them (or alert someone) if the mail hasn't been picked up for a couple of days.

[Anonymous]

My brother and I have a system where my mother will call one of us by a certain time each day. If she doesn't call, we try to track her down or call the neighbors across the street (who are friends of mine).

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine got Life Alert? for his mom who lived several states away in case she needed help immediately. It gave him and his sisters some peace of mind since they didn't live close by.