Caring for a parent or another loved one over time can be both physically and mentally challenging. Fortunately, there are many tips and services that may help lighten the load. Here are several tips to consider.

Assemble a care team: A good first step is to put together a network of people including family, friends and neighbors that you can call on when you cannot be there or when you need a break.

Tap local services: Many communities offer a range of free or subsidized services that help seniors and caregivers by providing home delivered meals, transportation, senior companions and more. Call 211 to find out what is available in your community.

Use short-term respite services: Some organizations provide short-term caregivers allowing you to rest, travel or attend to other matters. To locate services in your area, try the Eldercare Locator at eldercare.acl.gov.

Hire in-home help: You may want to consider hiring a part-time home-care aide to assist with preparing meals, housekeeping or personal care. Costs range from approximately $12 to $30 an hour depending on where you live, the qualifications of the aide and the services provided. To find help through an agency, use Medicare’s search tool Medicare.gov/care-compare. It may be more affordable to find someone on your own. Friends, neighbors or health care providers may be able to provide recommendations. You may also search online to find reputable aides who have undergone background checks.

Use financial tools: If you are handling your parent’s finances, you can simplify things by arranging direct deposit for their income sources and setting up automatic payments for their utilities and other routine bills. Also, consider signing your parent up for online banking so you can pay their other bills and monitor their account. If you want or need help, there are professional daily money managers who can do it for you. These professionals often charge between $75 and $150 per hour.

Get financial help: If your parent meets low-income requirements, you may be able to locate financial assistance programs in their area that can help pay for their medications, utilities, health care and other needs. If your parent receives Medicare or Medicaid covers, your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) provides free counseling and information on long-term care coverage. Call 877-839-2675 or visit ShiptaCenter.org to locate a nearby counselor. You can also get help at Medicare.gov or by calling 800-633-4227. The Medicare Rights Center also staffs a helpline and can be reached by calling 800-333-4114.

Tap other resources: There are several other organizations you can draw on for additional information, such as local nonprofits and government agencies. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (caregiver.va.gov) also offers caregiver support services to veterans and spouses of veterans.

Take care of yourself: Make your own health a priority. Being a caregiver is a big responsibility that can cause emotional and physical stress and potentially lead to illness and depression. The only way you can provide the care your parent needs is to make sure you stay healthy.

Savvy Living is written by Jim Miller, a regular contributor to the NBC Today Show and author of "The Savvy Living" book. Any links in this article are offered as a service and there is no endorsement of any product. These articles are offered as a helpful and informative service to our friends and may not always reflect this organization's official position on some topics. Jim invites you to send your senior questions to: Savvy Living, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.

How can I determine if the health information on a website is trustworthy? I typically research a symptom, drug or health condition online. However, with so much information out there, I am not sure what I can trust.

There is an abundance of health advice on the internet today and it can be hard to tell what is credible. To help you sort through the advice and locate reliable, trustworthy health information, here are a few tips to follow, and top-rated websites you can turn to with confidence.

Savvy Searching

First, know that online search engines are not always the best place to start. You will increase your odds of finding reliable health information if you begin with websites run by government agencies (identified by URLs ending in .gov), medical associations (often .org) or academic institutions (.edu).

Commercial websites (usually ending in .com), such as drug or insurance companies may not have the most reliable or up-to-date information. To find out who sponsors a website and the source of its information, click on the "About Us" tab on the website's home page. Also, note that good health and medical information often changes, so it is always best to check the publication date to ensure the information is current.

Other areas to be wary of include online symptom checkers and artificial intelligence (AI) tools. While online symptom checkers may be a convenient resource for health questions, they are oftentimes inaccurate and can lead to misdiagnosis, and possibly delay necessary medical care. AI tools, like ChatGPT, can also be incorrect or generate false but scientific-sounding information.

You also need to be cautious about medical information sourced from social media and online forums. Comments in these places may sound authoritative but the authors may have no medical training or expertise.

Top Health Websites

While there are many excellent websites that provide reliable health and medical information, one all-purpose website that is recommended by Consumer Reports for researching symptoms and conditions is MedlinePlus (medlineplus.gov).

A service of the National Library of Medicine, the world's largest medical library, and part of the National Institutes of Health, MedlinePlus provides high-quality, trustworthy health and wellness information that is easy to understand and free of advertising.

Here are a few additional websites to help you find reliable information on specific diseases, conditions and treatments.

Cancer: National Cancer Institute (cancer.gov), American Cancer Society (cancer.org) and National Comprehensive Cancer Network (nccn.org).

Heart disease: American Heart Association (americanheart.org), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (nhlbi.nih.gov).

Diabetes: American Diabetes Association (diabetes.org).

Alzheimer's disease: Alzheimer's Association (alz.org) and Alzheimers.gov.

Public health and vaccines: Center for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov).

Alternative medicine: National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (nccih.nih.gov) and the National Institutes of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements (ods.od.nih.gov).

To receive the best medical treatment for your specific needs, consult with a qualified medical provider. Be sure to save or print any research you do online before seeing a doctor, including the website you got your information from, in case you wish to review it with your doctor.

Savvy Living is written by Jim Miller, a regular contributor to the NBC Today Show and author of "The Savvy Living" book. Any links in this article are offered as a service and there is no endorsement of any product. These articles are offered as a helpful and informative service to our friends and may not always reflect this organization's official position on some topics. Jim invites you to send your senior questions to: Savvy Living, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.

These scams have fraudsters frequently pretend to be representing a government agency and specifically target senior adults. They use carefully crafted strategies that are based on fear and deceit to exploit senior victims.

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel stated, "Scammers often target seniors, attempting to steal personal information through phone calls, emails or text messages by pretending to be from the IRS or other agencies or businesses. Preventing these types of scams requires assistance from many different places. By partnering with other federal agencies and others in the tax community, we can reach more seniors and other taxpayers to help protect them against these terrible scams."

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is Saturday, June 15, 2024. This day has been observed for nearly two decades and focuses on programs to reduce neglect and abuse of seniors. It attempts to recognize the cultural, social, economic and demographic factors that are used by fraudsters.

The IRS offers specific cautions that enable seniors to understand the threats. The fraudsters continue to become more sophisticated and use "spoofed" caller IDs to appear legitimate.

1. Impersonation of Government Agents — Fraudsters often claim to represent the IRS, Social Security Administration, Medicare and other public agencies. They frequently spoof the caller ID, and the victim believes that it is a legitimate call from a government agency.
2. Claim of Prizes or Problems — Scammers may promise large prize winnings or claim you owe a significant debt. You might be promised a substantial tax refund or told that you owe a large amount to the IRS. The scammer’s goal is to convince you that you are receiving a large positive benefit or facing serious trouble. In either case, the scammer will attempt to persuade you to disclose financial information.
3. Pressure for Prompt Action — Fraudsters are skilled at creating a sense of urgency. They craft dramatic stories that persuade you to take immediate action. The stories could threaten a senior with arrest, deportation or loss of a driver's license. The urgency of the fraudster’s threat is a major red flag.
4. Unusual Payments — A fraudster knows he or she must remain anonymous. The scammer will use unusual payment methods that can make it difficult to track the money. These payments might include cryptocurrency, wire transfers or gift cards. The fraudster will explain why the senior must respond immediately. Under pressure and because of the urgency of the demand, many seniors have shared the financial information on a gift card and then had their funds disappear.

The IRS offers several protections for seniors. If you receive an unexpected call because you have not previously been notified by mail from the IRS regarding any issues with your taxes, you should hang up. You can contact the IRS at 800-829-1040 to verify the name and IRS department of the caller. You also can set up an online account on IRS.gov to review your tax information and status.

If you think you have been scammed, you can report it on the IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting form or call 800-366-4484.

Always keep in mind that there are four "never” rules that are followed by IRS staff.

1. Never Demand — The IRS emphasizes it will not demand immediate payment with a debit card, gift card or wire transfer.
2. Never Threaten Arrest — The IRS will not threaten you with arrest by police or a local law enforcement agency.
3. Never Skip Appeal — The IRS will never demand payment without giving you an opportunity to dispute the tax amount or proceed through an appeal process.
4. Never Demand Numbers — The IRS will never demand information from your credit, debit or gift card.

Finally, the U.S. Department of Justice has a National Elder Fraud Hotline. If you are a victim of elder fraud, you may call 833-372-8311. There are operators available who speak English, Spanish and other languages.

The Veterans Administration’s (VA) Aid and Attendance benefit program can help wartime veterans and their surviving spouses pay for a variety of long-term care costs. Aid and Attendance is a monthly benefit for eligible veterans and surviving spouses that is in addition to any existing VA pension. In 2024, the benefit pays a maximum of $2,727 per month to married veterans, $2,300 per month to single veterans or $1,478 per month to a surviving spouse. The money is tax free and can be used to pay for assisted living, memory care, nursing home or in-home care services.

Eligibility Requirements

To qualify, a veteran must meet certain service requirements and not have been discharged dishonorably. Single surviving spouses of wartime veterans are eligible if their marriage ended due to death.

To medically qualify, a veteran must be either disabled, or over the age of 65 and need help performing activities of daily living such as eating, bathing, or dressing. Veterans who are blind, residing in a nursing home due to disability or receiving Social Security Disability or SSI also qualify. Single surviving spouses have no age restrictions, but must need assistance with activities of daily living to be eligible.

Veterans and their spouses must also meet certain thresholds for financial need to be eligible for benefits. To financially qualify, an applicant’s net worth, which includes assets and annual income combined, must be below $155,356 in 2024.

To calculate net worth, add up all assets including real property, investments and personal property but do not include the primary home or vehicle. Next, add up the applicant’s income over the past year (including Social Security, pensions and interest income from investments and annuities) minus any out-of-pocket medical expenses, prescription drugs, insurance premiums and long-term care costs over that same period. The total net annual income combined with the asset total is the applicant’s net worth.

The VA has a three-year lookback period to determine if an applicant transferred any assets before filing the claim. If assets were transferred during that period for below market value and those assets would have disqualified the applicant, a penalty period of up to five years may apply.

How to Apply

To apply for Aid and Attendance, you will need to fill out VA Form 21-2680 and mail it to the appropriate Pension Management Center (PMC). A health care provider will need to prepare the examination information section. Applications can also be submitted in person at a VA regional office.

For more information or to download application forms see VA.gov/pension/aid-attendance-housebound. The VA can also be reached at 800-827-1000 if there are additional questions. If you need assistance, a Veteran Service Officer (VSO), a VA-accredited attorney or claims agent can be appointed to represent your interests. To locate accredited representatives, visit VA.gov/ogc/apps/accreditation/index.asp.

It can take months for an application to be processed. Once the application is approved, the VA will send a lump sum retroactive payment covering the time from the date of filing to the date it was approved. After receiving any retroactive payment, regular monthly payments will be made.

Savvy Living is written by Jim Miller, a regular contributor to the NBC Today Show and author of "The Savvy Living" book. Any links in this article are offered as a service and there is no endorsement of any product. These articles are offered as a helpful and informative service to our friends and may not always reflect this organization's official position on some topics. Jim invites you to send your senior questions to: Savvy Living, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.