Top Tip for Traveling Seniors: Do not forget to pack Your Personal Health Information

Diane Carbo RN and CEO of MyVitalAlert.com and CareGiverRelief.com who works with seniors to remain at home for as long as possible joins eHealth Radio and the Senior Care and Travel Health Care Channels. She and her team identified a need for a simple to use Medical ID system that provides specific health information for aging seniors.
Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels & guest Diane Carbo discuss the following:

• Can you tell me why personal health information is important when traveling?
• What is considered important personal information? 
• What important information should be included? 
• Who do you share your personal medical information with? 
• How should a person store their personal health information?

Duration: 9:35
My name is Diane Carbo. I’m a licensed registered nurse with over 39 years experience practicing in a variety of organizations and community settings and as an advocate for older adults and their families.
My passion is to help people plan for long term health care needs. This includes helping families with crisis management that requires long term health care. The goal is to assist these individual’s to remain independent and in their homes or a familiar surrounding for as long as possible.
My commitment to enhance the lives of aging adults comes not only from clinical experience, but from personal experience while caring for my father and mother in law.
I was a very young woman, when I saw the mental and emotional decline that occurred in my grandmother when my father and his brothers decided it was time to place her in a nursing home. I vowed to do everything in my power to assist my aging loved ones to stay at home as they aged.
My father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the age of 72. When he was told that hospice was his only option, he was devastated. My father was man of modest means, but he had a timeshare in Hawaii. He saved and planned his vacation there every other year. This was the year he was to go to Hawaii. His first thoughts were that he would have to cancel his trip.
I asked my father to wait and see how he was feeling before he cancelled his trip. I explained the role of hospice was not so much about dying, as it was about how you chose to live your life before you die.
A few weeks later, my father spent 6 weeks in Hawaii on hospice. His mental, emotional and physical health improved so much the first week that the nurses felt that he did not require their services. My dad started feeling sick they & just before he was to return home to the mainland. He died at home several weeks later surrounded by his family and friends. I believe he lasted as long as he did because he was mentally, spiritually and emotionally uplifted by his ability live out his dream of taking his last trip.
I have a passion for helping aging adults realize their goal of remaining at home as they age. I have a strong belief that aging adults do better, live longer and healthier lives surrounded by their loved ones and familiar surroundings. My work in senior behavioral health, Assisted Living, Long Term Care and Home care made me aware of the struggles family members caring for some one at home with dementia struggle and feel misunderstood, alone and unsupported.
I came to experience and understand the frustration so many experience along the caregiving journey. From this knowledge and my passion to help others, it is the goal of this site to help family caregivers and individuals suffering from dementia have an experience  that will enhance the care partner/care recipient  relationship. As the dementia progresses, it is my goal to develop a trust and confidence in the care partner so that they will communicate effectively to build the dementia patient’s sense of well being. Person centered care, activities, mindfulness and validation therapy are all effective approaches to use as the increasing challenges of  communicating. The person with dementia progressively loses the ability to remember things, to organize, or even to express their thoughts. I look forward to working with you to make your caregiving journey the best possible experience it can be. Please do not have delusions, there are some very difficult times ahead. Together, we can create an experience that will enhance the relationship you and for your family member with dementia.

Websites: MyVitalAlert.com | CareGiverRelief.com

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