It’s almost Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah. Long distance family members from nearly normal families will call you. As they have been seeing their parents over time they know Mom or Dad face a decline and they themselves are probably reaching burn out from constant travel and caring on top of their own work life demands

When they call for an inquiry you can proactively offer a list of alarm bells that they can look for this holiday season that would trigger engaging your services

You can give them this list to assess their parents or older family members during the holiday season and compare notes on a post-holiday call with you. Below is a list of red flags. If they see any red signals on Thanksgiving, Hanukkah or face them on Christmas-encourage them that is the time to do something about it by hiring a care manager. You can give them this is a checklist of some worrisome they may seen.

Alarm Bells List for Visiting Long Distance Relatives During the Holidays

Unpaid bills

Missed appointments

Clutter in a home that was once always neat

Weight loss

Memory loss, change in short-term memory

Poor grooming by a person who was once meticulous

Getting lost

Wandering

Refusing to go with friends on outings or to religious services

refusing any suggestion or conversely agreeing to everything with-out consideration

Mood swings, getting angry when normally easy going

Refusing to go to medical providers

Not taking care of activities of daily living: cooking, bathing, dressing, housekeeping, etc.

Entering contests, credit card maxed out on shopping channels

 Set up a meeting when the midlife adult children return from the holidays. You have helped them proactively, begin to engage your services.