The following is a checklist of essential information which is routinely requested in order to authorize care or to pay for treatment. Use this check list to identify the documents you have and where they are located.

Personal Information

• Full Legal Name
• Social Security Number
• Birth Certificate
• Marriage Certificate
• Death Certificate (Deceased Spouse)
• Divorce Decrees
• Military Records

o    Branch of Service
o    VA Identification Numbers
o    Veterans Military Service Record (DD-214)
o    Dates of Service

• Driver’s License
• Passports
• Citizenship Papers
• Will
• Trusts
• Life Insurance Policy/Policies
• Disability Insurance Policy/Policies
• Longterm Care Insurance
• Security Deposit Boxes

o    Location
o    Number
o    Key Location

• Church Membership and Contact Information
• Waiting List(s) for Retirement Communities, Assisted Living Communities, or Nursing Facilities
• Information on Cemetery Plots and Funeral & Burial Arrangements.
• Care for Family Pets

• Health Care Providers

o    Physicians
o    Clinics
o    Pharmacy
o    Therapists

• Living Will
• Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
• Medicare Number and Card
• Medicaid Number and Card
• Medicare D Prescription Program Information
• Health Insurance Policies
• Do Not Resuscitate Order (DNR)
• Advance Directives

This list is only a guideline. Please discuss any special case circumstances with your responsible parties.

HomeChoice Network serves residents of Moore County, North Carolina. We serve individuals who live in Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Aberdeen and surrounding communities.  HomeChoice brings non-medical services to the home, enabling senior adults to meet the day-to-day requirements of independent living while continuing the activities they enjoy.

Contact HomeChoice for more information about elder care in Moore County, North Carolina

1. When you are sick stay at home and don’t go out – not even to see friends or family.
2. If there’s something that can’t wait, can you call from home and ask a friend to fill-in for you for a day?
3. Remember, you’ll just slow everybody down even more if you give this cold to several friends or relatives
4. Use tissues if you’re sniffling, sneezing, or coughing and throw them away immediately when you are done. Even if you usually carry a handkerchief, use tissues for colds and dispose of them. Don’t put them in your pocket. If you find that one tissue is too big, cut them in half.
5. Cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough. A tissue is ideal, but if none is handy, sneeze or cough into your bent elbow rather than into your hand.
6. Wash your hands often, after blowing your nose or using the restroom and before handling food or dishes. You should be doing this anyway, but take special care now. Remind others who live with you to do the same.
7. Clean surfaces that you handle often. Doorknobs, light switches, keyboards, mice, and telephones are good places to start, but watch what else you touch. This is a good job for one of those disinfecting wipes or a bit of spray cleaner on a soft cloth.
8. Wash clothes, bedding, and towels. As the symptoms start to subside, a bit of extra laundry can go a long way toward keeping the rest of the family healthy.
9. Open up. Try to get a little bit of extra ventilation into your home, even if it’s winter. Use your judgment.

How to Steps:

Stop trying to coerce, nag, bully, or talk your family member into taking care of themselves. Doing so never works, it just causes them to rebel more, and drains you of your energy.

1. Tell the truth. Tell your family member how you feel when you see them choosing to live an unhealthy life. You might say, “I feel furious when I see you smoking.” Or “I feel scared that you are going to die when I see you eating that doughnut so soon after your triple heart bypass.” Do your best to speak in a way that expresses how YOU are feeling, without blaming your family member.
2. Model healthy behavior. Taking good care of yourself is the only thing you CAN do. You can’t make someone else take care of themselves, but if you show them that you are willing to get rest, practice healthy nutrition, talk about your feelings, move and breathe in healthy ways, then you’ll feel better no matter what they choose to do, and you might just inspire them to try it.
3. Give them some space. Sometimes people only know how to get attention when they are doing something that ultimately hurts them. People rush in to save them, and secretly, they like it even though they’re getting “negative” attention. Instead, reserve your attention for when they are doing things that are good for them. Praise them for the good choices.
4. Reflect back their choices. When someone in your life is choosing something that can kill or hurt them. Remind them that they are making a choice, and in doing so, are choosing death. Sometimes a little tough love can assist them in seeing what they are doing.
5. Understand their pain. The only reason people wouldn’t take good care of themselves, is because they are in some kind of pain. They might be scared to die, and that’s why they don’t want to go to the doctor. (It doesn’t have to make sense). Or maybe they are using those cigarettes to stem the flow of their sadness. Whatever it is, understanding that THEY are in pain will help YOU to see their innocence underneath.

Ultimately, this is their life, and they get to choose how to live it, no matter how unhealthily. (And you don’t have to be happy about it – see step 2). Letting them make their own choices is difficult, but necessary.

Contact HomeChoice to learn more about in home elder care in North Carolina

1. Drink fluids with each meal and snack and throughout the day.
2. Keep a bottle of water within reach. The faucet may be close at hand but how many times do you actually get up to fill your glass?
3. When you travel – by car, plane or train – always carry a bottle of water with you.
4. If you don’t like drinking plain water, add a splash of white grape juice, cranberry juice or black currant concentrate. Or, try a glass of sparking mineral with a slice of lemon.
5. If you deprive your body of fluids because you don’t like the taste of tap water, buy a water pitcher with an activated carbon filter. Always keep a full pitcher in the fridge. (And don’t forget to replace the filter periodically!)
6. Use a water bottle when you exercise. Drink 4oz – 6oz of fluid every 15 minutes.
7. If your physical activity lasts longer than one hour, hydrate with a sports drink such as Gatorade, All Sport or PowerAde.
8. If you drink fruit juice, choose only unsweetened varieties that don’t have sugar added.
9. Keep your coffee intake to a minimum. Ideally aim for no more than two cups per day. Replace unnecessary coffee (and soft drinks) with herbal tea, black tea or green tea. You get much less caffeine, and in the case of black and green teas, plenty of health enhancing antioxidants.
10. Limit your intake of alcoholic beverages to no more than seven per week (women) or nine per week (men). When you drink, drink a glass of water after each alcoholic beverage you’ve consumed.

This Senior health tip is brought to you by the HomeChoice Network, a senior-care service in the Sandhills North Carolina communites of Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen, Whispering Pines and others.  We serve all of Moore County.