What’s going through your mind? Perhaps, “...now that I’m certified as an Elder Safety Counselor, what can I use to show my prospects?”  Possibly a video, testimonials or a website? Perhaps videos, testimonials and information about your certification and why they need your services belong on your own website. Where can you get a website? We have a limited number free start-up websites available to our counselors on a first-come, first-served basis.
There are certain steps that the counselor should take prior to beginning set-up of the website content  
  1. Determine what outcome you want from your prospective clients.
  2. Determine what will attract their attention.
  3. List what you will use to maintain their attention and keep them engaged.
  4. Relate the senior safety problem to how it will impact their lives and how your service will eliminate or mitigate these problems or pitfalls.
  5. Provide a definite, easy path to making a commitment to an evaluation.
  6. Make it easy for them to contact you and to make an appointment.
In the marketing world, this is known as “AIDA” (the name of a famous opera.)
  1. Get their Attention
  2. Keep their Interest
  3. Get them to Decide it’s best
  4. Make it easy for them to take Action such as signing-up.
Your next step is to plan out your website on paper. How would you like it to appear? Include a smiling photo (a head shot preferably) of yourself in the website.  After completing these steps, send an email to us at AAESC@AAESC.ORG requesting a website. Include a copy of your prospective website if you would like our opinion. We will put you in touch with the web originator. You will have to have a name for your website and it may not contain AAESC. It may contain ESC. Try to keep it simple yet pertinent and easy for a prospect to remember.

Be certain to use your website’s URL on your business card and in all of your advertising.
Dr. L. Hoffman
 
 
How Do I Prove My Credibility?

Here I am, at the door of prospective clients. Before knocking on the door, I’m more than just a little apprehensive about what they will feel about my qualification. I’m asking them to put their or their family’s well being into my hands. In other words, am I credible as an elder safety counselor?

A few years ago I was planning to commission a room addition to my house. I had ideas about size, layout, and where it would be; however, I’m not an architect and plans needed to be submitted. I asked friends, neighbors as well as people at the major building supply store for a referral. I received numerous names, websites, and telephone numbers. How does one choose?

It soon became apparent that all were not equal. I had little or no faith in most of the six of them as I judged their presentations during six nights of interviews. But I also noticed that two of those were certified by AIA and they seemed to be the most knowledgeable. The certification as members of the Architectural Institute of America was proof of their capability, experience and knowledge. I decided on one of the certified architects and it turned out to be a good choice. The plans were drawn and he kept me from making some costly errors in planning. The plans were approved the first time through the city’s Building and Safety Department. There were no architectural problems during construction. Certification by a professional body should be paramount in the mind of anyone commissioning a service that leaves no room for error or omission.

Would you leave the physical well being of your elderly parents or yourself to someone who has not been through the education and certification process for the required skill? In today’s world, most of the Physicians groups and the U.S. Government are recommending that the elderly have in-home safety counseling and a safety evaluation of the state of the home, both interior and exterior, including one-on -one counseling and a written report.

The elders themselves never see the pitfalls and/or dangerous conditions, not because they don’t exist, but because they’ve become accustomed to seeing them as normal. The adult children of the elders have much the same problem, besides their lacking the expertise to give adequate prevention counseling. It has become imperative that elders receive this service, if only to prevent the number one cause of elder accident deaths or incapacity, the fall. Stats show that one in three elders over age 65 will suffer a disabling and often deadly fall. Have this service for yourself or your elderly parents or loved ones. Have it done by a Certified Member of the American Association of Elder Safety Counselors.

It’s important to have confidence in the person whose skills may save your loved one the pain of an accident at home and yourself the pain of having to care for this person for what could be an extended period. In-home care by a professional or nursing home care is very expensive and will average about $60,000 per year.

Visit The American Association of Elder Safety Counselors website at www.aaesc.org.  AAESC has openings worldwide for counselors. Training and certification are available.

For more information, please call or email Dr. Lawrence Hoffman, PhD.

Dr. Lawrence Hoffman
Lhoffman@AAESC.org
1-800-514-3560 /1-714-983-5831 
M-F 9:00 AM to 5:00 PST

 
 
Today’s vehicles seem to go to extremes with seat and threshold heights. Examine the popularity of SUV's and pickup trucks. These vehicles characteristically will have a seat and threshold height well above that of the average full sized sedan. At the other end of that spectrum, the compact or sub-compact automobile will have a low seat height and may be burdened with a relatively high threshold. OK, so what’s the big problem?

The problem is, insuring that the elder doesn’t fall, slip or slide. The height of a vehicle provides the possibility of injury to an elder (or a short non-elder) or at the worst a fatality. Most elders have become frail or fragile as a characteristic of old age and a large percentage of elderly will have balance and vision problems. Coupling these ingredients together with a vehicle’s high seat or threshold is the perfect recipe for disaster.

The first encounter for an elder will be the threshold height of the SUV or pickup. In modern vehicles such as these, the height is usually a few inches above the vehicle’s floor height. Elders rarely will have sufficient flexibility and strength to easily get a leg up to the floor of the vehicle. Most likely the scenario will be the elder backs up to the seat and attempts to slide up to a seated position. Herein lays the danger. Most seats are not rigid at the sides and as the elder attempts to sit, they slide down; coupled with their lack of strength and/or balance ability, the result may be a slip and severe fall causing head, neck or back injury. Any one of these will be very painful and potentially fatal.

There is a solution to this problem. When you transport the elderly, provide a step. The old cars of the 1920s through the 40s had “running boards.” In reality it was a stepping platform on the sides of the cars and trucks which remained on the exterior of the car when the doors were closed. In today’s world there are no running boards, but there are exterior steps that can be added as an option on a new SUV or pickup; or purchased as an after-market accessory. The addition of a step is a major factor in prevention of the aforementioned slip or fall. If it is only on a rare occasion that the vehicle owner would transport an elder person, the owner should plan to bring a very stable portable step such as a sturdy wood or metal box or another device that is of appropriate height for the vehicle and the elder.

This danger also exists when exiting the vehicle. The senior may be using his or her feet to grope for the ground and slide out into a fall. Most modern high vehicles have handles inside which aids the elder with entry and exit. Be certain to pint this out each time the elder is to enter or exit. Handles are also useful in some of the smaller vehicles. Bear in mind, that because there are handles being used doesn’t preclude the possibility that the elder hasn’t enough strength to maintain a grip in the event of a slide. Be there to offer assistance at every entry and exit of an elder.
 
 
Picture yourself sitting on your front steps or porch while some of your friends drive by, with a wave goodbye to you, as they pull their new boat to the lake for some fun in the water on this bright sunny day. Perhaps instead of a boat it’s a trip to Las Vegas or skiing in their shinny new car. What are you thinking? Maybe something such as “I wish I had an income that allowed me to be with them” or “this working for someone else doesn’t pay enough for me to have anything left over after paying my bills.”  
Perhaps you’re thinking “I wish I were in business for myself so that I could reap the profits but where would I get the thousands of dollars that it takes.” It doesn’t have to be that way! There is an excellent opportunity awaiting energetic people who wish to earn excellent money while enjoying a prestigious position in society and at the same time, be of great service to the public.

As a "Certified Elder Safety Counselor” you have an opportunity to have your own independent business that will allow you to earn a good income with a very small investment, as little as about $500 (for a limited time, until March 01, 2010) will get you started building your business, and there is no back-breaking or dirty work. You set your own hours and schedule.

The fees are of professional caliber and this is not a franchise; therefore, you keep every penny you earn. There are no franchise fees. Your initial investment of $500 will bring the at-home course of study to you, including the course exam, which is an open book exam. This course usually takes about 18 study hours for the average person to complete. Upon completion you are eligible to apply for certification and to take the certification exam in your own town.

With certification from the American Association of Elder Safety Counselors, come materials that will guide you through the process of building your business. An energetic, self-starter who is diligent may earn as much as $150,000 per year by the third year.

Get the details. Do it now while the promotional pricing will save you start-up dollars. The American Association of Elder Safety Counselors is the only national and international certifying body. We are proud members of the Better Business Bureau.

For further Check out our website www.AAESC.org, or you may call Dr. Lawrence Hoffman at 800-514-3560 / 714-983-5831.
 
 
This is a bigger question than most people think. Your first thought of course will go to the physical pain your elderly loved-one will suffer. But then comes the realization that gramps or granny who may be widowed, is living alone, or still married, but the spouse will not be able to physically handle helping with changing clothing, turning them in the bed to avoid bed sores, cooking and bringing their meals to bedside and of course the ugh… bedpan.

Well there are always convalescent hospitals, but they’re about $4,000 to $10,000 a month depending upon the level of care and the ambiance. Medicare pays only a portion, and most seniors do not have private long-term-care insurance for various reasons. When they were young enough to afford it, very few insurers advertised it because most of the time granny or gramps received their care from mom who stayed at home and raised the kids and from dad in the evening. Now to subscribe to long-term care at an advanced age (55 or older) requires a monthly premium that very few seniors can afford.

To use Medicare to pay for convalescent care, the senior may not have total assets over $4,000. Whatever assets that are in granny’s estate will rapidly be eaten-up at about $50,000 to $72,000 a year as an average for the lower end care. There goes your inheritance. With the possibility of the new health care program (known unofficially as “Obamacare”) being passed and $500 billion dollars coming from Medicare, granny’s future and your inheritance, if any, aren’t looking too good!

The only logical solution is to prevent the accident from happening. This sounds easy enough, but be advised that U.S. Government statistics cite that falling causes 90 percent of the fractures in seniors over 65 years old. Lack of balance ability is the fundamental reason and it is very difficult give a senior a greater sense of balance. Fractured hips are a leading cause of deaths due to accidents happening to seniors. The resultant pneumonia from being bed ridden follows the accident leading to one of the most prevalent causes of death. To avoid pneumonia from occurring, the patient must sit, walk and/or be turned regularly. Over three million hospital days annually are attributed to hip fractures in the U.S.A.

For those with senior aged parents who are not millionaires, the best and least expensive method of preventing the accidents from occurring in the first place is to contract with a professional elder safety counselor to make an in-home evaluation, provide you and your senior parent or loved one with a written report citing all safety pitfalls, and specific topic counseling with the elder(s). The certifying agency for these counselors is The American Association of Elder Safety Counselors. AAESC trains and certifies men and women who wish to have their own professional home-based business, and at the same time provide a much-needed professional service to the community. AAESC provides one of the least expensive ways to start a business or as they say it to “Fire Your Boss!” Please visit our website for more information
 
 
As little kids, all of us at one time or another were afraid of the monster, ghoul, or killer hiding in the darkness of our bedroom, closet, behind the drapes or even under the bed. Mom or Dad came to the rescue with a dim night light of some kind. Well, the elderly have something to be frightened about in the darkness of night, but most aren’t even aware of that fact.

It’s not the boogey man or the chainsaw murderer in the closet, but their furniture they are so comfortable with. After all, they’ve had most of it for 20 years or more. When the lights are turned off, it takes numerous seconds for the iris in the eyes to open and adjust, allowing in more light. For the elderly, the process of the iris opening may be much slower. The elderly rarely are cognizant of this fact and will usually attempt to head for the bathroom, bedroom, or some other place using only their memory as to the placement of furniture. We all acknowledge that memory becomes less reliable or very unreliable as we age.

The results of this may be banging a foot into a chair leg, tripping over a coffee table, slipping on a shoe left in the path, or any number of incidents that result in falling or broken bones. A falling elder has a higher percentage chance of breaking a hip. A broken hip will almost always result in a long-term (sometimes permanent) confinement to bed, and a lengthy recovery period, as well as great pain. One or two broken toes may make walking very difficult for an elder, causing a bed-confinement for weeks. Who is going to be the caretaker?

The elder, their family, or their friends should insure that there are no path obstructions in the paths that are normally used by the elder, particularly those traveled at night. This means moving furniture and other obstructions permanently. These moves will probably upset the aesthetic appearance of the home; however the alternative is a high percentage: risk of injury, loss of mobility, or loss of life itself. The elder will often balk at making these changes. It may be best to have a professional counsel them on what should be done. The family can have a certified elder safety counselor lend credibility with their evaluation. Bear in mind the motto of the American Association of Elder Safety Counselors, “Prevention is the Cure.”
 
 
The Kitchen's on Fire!

Striking fear into the hearts and minds of elders is the possibility of having to give-up the home he, she, or they have lived in for many years due to the fact that they sometimes are forgetful. Perhaps they forget to turn off the stove, the oven, or even the  space heater; which can create a lethal fire hazard. The Elder is rarely cognizant of the problem and is not fearful; however, their adult children or loved ones live with the fear that Granny, Mom, or Dad will cause the fire that could become lethal or at least permanently debilitating.

We or they certainly do not want to lose these cherished members of the family or friends and now thanks to technology (shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas) is a device that can actually turn off the stove if a user forgets. A built-in motion detector turns the appliance off if the user leaves the room or does not return in a specific time frame.

I can tell you, I was often very worried about my mother in her advanced years. She did this often, but was somewhat lucky that her apartment was rather small and the smell penetrated the rooms before a major fire disaster took place. All she had was a smoke detector that she couldn’t hear.

This monitoring device can be obtained at Home for Life Solutions in Lee Summit. You can see their full range of products at www.homeforlifesolutions.com/products.

 
Welcome to AAESC 01/08/2010
 
Dr. Hoffman shares his insights and wisdom with the AAESC community. Our Motto is... "Prevention is the Cure."