The caregivers in our community are important – and deserve to be celebrated by us all. They don’t stand up after every long day and say “ta-da” – but they certainly could. Caregivers provide an astonishing array of services across an almost unlimited range of needs. They help many individuals remain more independent by providing smaller degrees of assistance. At the other end of the spectrum, they bring a warm heart and critical skills into very difficult situations where all hope has been otherwise erased for individuals and families facing the crushing array of losses that life can bring to us.
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A recent study examined supports that family caregivers deemed important for them to maintain their own wellbeing. It showed women are more often caregivers (60%) and that caregivers have more chronic health conditions than their non-caregiving peers. Caregiver supports that they deemed valuable include:

• Telemedicine, web portals, and house calls.
• Access to ongoing education and other caregiver resources. One in five reported they no support or hardly any support that they needed to provide ongoing care.
• Better access to health services for their own health care, including in-home services.

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ASI’s website provides information on our support programs and a wide variety of resources for wellness and aging, including caregiver resource information. One aspect of ASI’s programs that support community caregivers is our Medical Alert Monitoring. This program provides essential material aid for monitor units and fees to consumers and their families for greater assurance of security in case of emergency. Our Meals on Wheels program also supports caregivers locally.

If you or someone you know needs a medical monitoring device or Meals on Wheels services, you can contact us at ASI to find out more. Our site also provides information about other ASI programs in Archuleta County and contact information for making reservations at The Community Café for take-out and for Meals on Wheels.

​The recent upswing in computer attacks serves to remind us that everyone can experience phishing, ransomware, or other theft of your data. Once a hacker has your data, it is not simply a matter of “getting it back” or “recovering” your images, accounting, correspondence, and whatever else you keep on your devices. That data is now Free Range – it is out in the world and cannot be pulled back. If that data includes access to your banking and investments, you may really be sunk.

At minimum, for phones and other portable devices, learn about privacy settings on apps. Apps often have permissions to access personal information such as contacts on your device, your physical location, and your camera images – that’s for apps that have nothing to do with snapping a photo. Some apps need this information to work, but most do not – and worse yet – they may share the information they get from your device with other companies. Sign into apps from your email using a unique password, instead of signing into apps directly from a social network account. Using a social network account often allows the app to collect and distribute information about you that you may be unaware is being transmitted. That permission can be buried in Terms of Use, but is not obvious to you as you use the app.

A false sense of security may be fostered through backups and cyber insurance. For those individuals and companies who go to great lengths to protect their information, they are likely to discover that backups are equally corrupted by malware and/or their cyber insurance does not cover them for the event they have experienced. Create a series of backups that are separate from your device (and family or business networks) and secure the backups in a safe (preferably fire and waterproof) location – best practice is a separate backup drive combined with a backup in the cloud. To learn more about how to go about protecting your data, the pictures of your family and friends, your bank accounts, and everything else digital in your life, the FTC provides free tips for consumers and businesses at: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/. You can search by topic and get up-to-date, easy to follow instructions.

Our website provides information about ASI programs here in Pagosa Springs, as well as resources for wellness and aging. Our site also provides information about other ASI programs in Archuleta County and contact information for making reservations at The Community Café for take-out and Meals on Wheels.