Planning For Your Older Years

Any survival plan must take into account the health of the people the plan is expected to help. In our case we are on the back half of life and cannot be expected to have the same stamina as our children.  Planning for our senior years is a reality we can no longer ignore.

We recently participated in a simple 5K. I hesitate to call it a race as we certainly did not approach it as such. I actually wanted us to participate in the event to gauge our ability to walk that distance and to judge our conditioning upon completion.

We survived. That is about as much as I can say at this point. We did not die from the experience but we certainly could not have gone much further and we certainly would not have made it carrying any supplies of any sort. What this event proved to me beyond any shadow of doubt is that we are not able to safely “bug out” if we had to. We realistically could not make it to the next town without issues. Heck, I am not sure we could make it out of our own town! Bugging out is simply not an option. In a lot of ways this does simplify the situation in that we do not have to spend a great deal of time coming up with a bug out plan.

Geriatric Specific Needs

Now that we have determined that we are sheltering in place we can plan accordingly.  This decision now allows us to focus on the specific needs that older people have.  Things like:

Alternative medicines

Many older people take supplements and prescription drugs to help maintain their daily lives.  Whenever possible use promotions and BOGO sales to build your stock of medical supplies.

Medical equipment

Whenever possible use medical equipment that can run on batteries.  Then store additional batteries or a solar recharging station.  These will allow you to operate your equipment even when the power is out for extended periods of time.

Mobility equipment.

You may need mobility equipment to get around.  After a disaster this equipment may not be able to pass through debris.  You need to have alternative equipment such as canes, walkers and other devices to use as backup.  Practice with these devices as often as possible.

Communications

You will need to have the ability to communicate to family and emergency services.  Having a home phone is a minimum.  Having a cell phone and knowing how to text is a real benefit.  Even when a phone call won’t go through a text may make it out.

Plan To Live

Seniors must take time now to look at their daily needs.  Then plan how to continue living without power and resupply for at least 7 days.  Doing so will make the difference between living through the disaster or being a statistic.

Click this link to learn about planning for entertainment.  Keeping your mind occupied will help shorten the disaster.