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Friday, March 29, 2024
March 29, 2024

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Letter: Check in on the isolated

By Mark Soderburg, Vancouver
Published: August 17, 2022, 6:00am

There are many people reaching retirement age, and many have or will begin to have some sort of medical issues but wish to remain in their homes. And when these people live alone, at some point, they start to realize some risks that are specific to their age and health. With the additional rise in or their risk of crime, people have installed security doors, some have additional bars on windows, some have alarm systems. And many are what I refer to as senior orphans: they have no close relatives, are childless, or have become estranged.

There needs to be a way for disabled, older, isolated people to be in touch for safety, without loss of privacy or an intrusion into their chosen way of life. A daily or weekly check-in by phone, email, knock on the door, appearance at the window, flash of the porch light. Maybe a means for at-risk people to share the name and contact information to be used to gain entry in case of emergency. But all in a way that respects the various levels of privacy people deserve.

No one, I don’t think, wants their relatives, or a friend, or neighbor, or anyone to find them in an advanced state of decomposition.

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