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Christmas is days away and everyone from the Triangle J Area Agency on Aging is wishing you and yours a happy holiday and a joyous New Year!

As we face 2012 many people have questions about how to maintain a safe and healthy lifestyle when they are financially unstable. It turns out that there still are many untapped benefits programs that are available to vulnerable older adults. The question is how do you find these programs and tap into them?

The National Council on Aging (ncoa) is celebrating 10 years of helping people locate benefits with their BenefitsCheckUp program. This program has identified more than $10 billion in benefits for over 3 million vulnerable older adults. It is a comprehensive web-based service to screen for benefits programs for seniors with limited income and resources. Programs range from extra help paying for prescriptions to locating food programs in your area.

After locating the programs, BenefitsCheckUp creates a report that describes the programs that may help. Many of the programs have online applications and can be printed directly from the BenefitsCheckUp website. If you think you may be eligible for benefits or know someone who could benefit from this service visit http://www.benefitscheckup.org/. 

For a warming, real life story of how BenefitsCheckUp can work, read Mr. Buddy’s story. http://www.ncoa.org/enhance-economic-security/benefits-access/double-the-income-financial.html

November is Caregiver Month

Throughout the month of November, Family Caregivers are recognized for the time, energy and resources they devote to caring for aging family members. According to Caregiving in the United States, published In November 2009 by the National Alliance for Caregiving in collaboration with AARP, the average number of hours family caregivers spend caring for their loved ones is 20 hours per week; 13% of family caregivers provide 40 hours of care a week or more.

With Thanksgiving Day this week, it’s a perfect time to do something special for the family caregivers in your life. A bouquet of flowers, a card with a handwritten note, the gift of a home-baked goody or an invitation to share Thanksgiving dinner – what matters the most is that we all take time to thank those who give unselfishly to support parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members, so they can continue to live at home in a secure and loving environment for as long as possible.

Through the Triangle J Area Agency on Aging, the Family Caregiver Support Program works with local counties and towns to generate and offer support to family members who care for senior relatives at home. Direct assistance to caregivers is developed in the form of local resource information; assistance in accessing services; support groups, caregiver training, and individual counseling; respite care; and supplemental services.

From the Area Agency on Aging we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.