If you have questions about aging or living with a disability, your local aging and disability resource center (ADRC) can help. The ADRC provides information on a variety of programs and services. That includes long-term care options. The ADRC also helps people apply for programs and benefits, including publicly funded long-term care.

• By calling your local ADRC on the phone.
• By scheduling a home visit with your local ADRC.
• By visiting your local ADRC in person.

Find your local ADRC

Services provided by the ADRC

The ADRC connects you with resources, including:

• Adaptive equipment.
• Caregiver support.
• Dementia care services.
• Health, nutrition, and home-delivery meal programs.
• Housekeeping and chore services.
• Housing options.
• In-home personal care and nursing.
• Long-term care programs.
• Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.
• Safety updates to the home.
• Transportation.
• Wellness programs.

Today, roughly 28% of seniors live alone. This adds up to nearly 12.5 million people.

While many seniors enjoy living alone and want to maintain their independence for as long as possible, living alone can pose some serious security threats to seniors.

Here are some tips to help you stay home and healthy:

1. Stay in good health
2. Build a close circle of friends
3. Keep up with your medications
4. Develop a disaster kit
5. Keep up with home repair
6. Lock doors and windows
7. Make sure to have an updated and working fire alarms
8. Develop of list of emergency contacts
9. Have someone check in with you daily
10. Keep up with going to your routine check ups

If you need help with getting transportation or medical appointments, grocery shopping or running any other errands, please give us a call at 715-848-8783.

Connexus Credit Union continues to be a faithful partner for FIAMC in serving our local seniors. Huge thank you to Connexus Credit Union for this donation to help area seniors in need.

If you know a Marathon County Senior in need or desires to volunteer, please check out FIAMC!

A FREE virtual event through the ADRC that we have coming up focused on connecting individuals to exercise opportunities that are going to help prevent falls.

Aspirus, Marshfield Clinic, the ADRC of Portage County and ADRC of Central Wisconsin have partnered to offer: “Let’s Get Physical: Getting and Staying Active to Prevent Falls” on September 7 from 2:00 pm -3:30 pm. Guest experts will help to: 

• Connect people to local and home-based exercises to improve strength and balance.
• See demonstrations of exercises proven to help prevent falls.
• Discuss ways to maximize preventive insurance benefits, such as Silver Sneakers or One Pass.

See the attached flyer for more details. Register online at www.adrc-cw.org/falls/ or by calling 888-486-9545. Registration is open through September 6. ** If you know someone who is interested in attending, but does not have access to the internet/computer/tablet etc, please call the ADRC at 888-486-9545, as there may be other options available.

By Shereen Siewert

A Los Angeles, Cal. man is accused of swindling multiple Wausau-area victims out of tens of thousands of dollars in an alleged “grandparent scam,” while facing similar charges in two additional Wisconsin counties.

William T. Comfort, 27, is being summoned into Marathon County Circuit Court Aug. 25 to face three counts of theft by false representation between $10,000 and $100,000 as party to a crime, with increased penalties for an elderly victim. Comfort is accused of posing as an attorney and collecting money from three separate elderly people in the metro area who thought they were helping a grandchild in trouble.

The three alleged thefts happened between May 6 and May 11.

Grandparent scams and related cons are common. According to AARP, from 2015 through the first quarter of 2020, the FTC logged more than 91,000 reports of crooks posing as a relative or friend of the victim. Police say such scams can be lucrative: Eight people charged in a July 2021 federal indictment allegedly ran a nationwide scam network that used this ruse to steal some $2 million from more than 70 older Americans over an 11-month period in 2019 and 2020.

Tips and resources from AARP are below.

Warning Signs

• The person claiming to be your grandchild asks you to send money immediately and provides details on how — for example, via gift-card, prepaid card or wiring money to a particular Western Union office.
• The call comes late at night. Scammers figure an older person may get confused more easily if they call then, the National Consumers League warns.

Do:

• Do set the privacy settings on your social media accounts so that only people you know can access your posts and photos. Scammers search Facebook, Instagram and other social networks for family information they can use to fool you.
• Do hang up immediately and call the grandchild or other family member in question, on a known number, to make sure they’re safe. With luck, they’ll answer, and you’ll know the supposed emergency call is a scam.
• Do contact other family members or friends if you have any concern that the emergency could be real. Scammers plead with you to keep the situation a secret precisely so you won’t try to confirm it.
• If you speak to someone who claims to be a police officer, do call the relevant law enforcement agency to verify the person’s identity and any information they’ve given you.
• Do trust your instincts. As the American Bar Association advises, if something doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.

Don’t

• Don’t drop your guard because the number on your caller ID looks familiar. Scammers can use technological tricks to make it appear that they’re calling from a trusted number, the Federal Communications Commission warns.
• Don’t volunteer information — scammers fish for facts they can use to make the impersonation believable. For example, if the caller says, “It’s me, grandpa!” don’t say your grandchild’s name. Wait for the caller say it.
• Don’t let a caller rush you into making a decision.
• Don’t send cash, wire money, or provide numbers from gift or cash-reload cards to a person claiming to be a grandchild. Scammers prefer those payment methods because they’re difficult to trace.
• Don’t panic, no matter how dire the grandchild’s predicament sounds. Scam artists want to get you upset to distract you from spotting the ruse.

More Resources

• You can report any fraud targeting older people to the FTC online or at 877-382-4357. You might also want to notify your state’s attorney general and consumer protection office.
• If you sent money to a suspected scammer via Western Union, call the company’s fraud hotline (800-448-1492) as soon as possible. Ditto if you used MoneyGram (800-926-9400). If the transfer has not yet been paid, Western Union or MoneyGram may be able to stop the transaction and refund your money.