Gail Gilman, Family Life Consultant, M.Ed., C.F.C.S. and Professor
\nEmeritus, University of Minnesota<\/p>\n
Caregivers are amazing people.\u00a0 Most of them work very long hours, are under
\nincredible emotional pressure, and have little support.\u00a0 They want so badly
\nto do the very best for their loved one.<\/p>\n
The following story was shared by a woman caring for her father who had been
\ndiagnosed with Alzheimer’s a few years ago but was still able to live by
\nhimself.\u00a0 Just recently, she had started checking on him more frequently, as
\nhe was getting more forgetful.\u00a0 She would go by his house a couple of times
\na week to bring food and visit with him.<\/p>\n
One day, she stopped by and found a statement from his checking account on
\nthe kitchen counter.\u00a0 It showed that his account was overdrawn by $15,000.
\nWhen she asked him about it, he told her he did not know what happened and
\nstarted to cry.\u00a0 He showed her some mail he had been receiving, and she was
\nsurprised to find that he had been sending checks to a number of
\n“sweepstakes” companies.<\/p>\n
After hours of research in his home and at the bank, she learned the
\nhorrible truth of why her father’s account was overdrawn.\u00a0 It all started
\nwhen he responded to a sweepstakes offer and then was sent a letter
\nexplaining that in order to receive his prize, he had to send in a check for
\n$25.\u00a0 Once he did this, his name must have been sold to other similar
\ncompanies as a multitude of “sweepstakes offers” began coming to his home.
\nEach one offered a big prize and told him to send in a check for $20-$30 to
\npay “handling charges” so his prize could be sent out to him.<\/p>\n
Some of these companies had even gained permission to draft funds directly
\nfrom his checking account.\u00a0 This caregiver was shocked to learn that anyone
\nwould take advantage of someone like her father and angered to learn from
\nthe law enforcement that this type of thing is common.<\/p>\n
She tried to gently manage the problem by monitoring him more closely but
\nfinally realized she needed to take over control of his mail to stop the
\nsweepstakes letters.\u00a0 The only way to do this was to re-route his mail to a
\nP.O. box and hand-deliver the mail to him daily.\u00a0 She hated taking away a
\npart of his independence but knew it was what she had to do.<\/p>\n
Sadly, this story is all too common, but it can also be prevented.\u00a0 Here are
\na few tips for caregivers who are responsible for monitoring finances:<\/p>\n
*\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Create a simple budget, so you have an idea of your loved one’s
\nexpenses each month.\u00a0 This way, if an unusual expense shows up (like an
\nunusually high utility bill), you will notice and know to question it.
\n*\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Monitor the mail.\u00a0 It is not unusual for loved ones to send money to
\nnumerous charities without knowing anything about them.
\n*\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Have a power of attorney for finances.\u00a0 This will enable you to make
\nfinancial decisions in case your loved one is incapacitated.
\n*\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Document money that you spend, that belonged to the person you are
\ncaring for.\u00a0 Start a journal or log and simply write down what you buy with
\ntheir resources.\u00a0 Even if your siblings currently trust you and are happy
\nwith how you are managing things, do it.\u00a0 It will give you peace of mind,
\nand you will be able to show anyone who asks, “where the money went.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gail Gilman, Family Life Consultant, M.Ed., C.F.C.S. and Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota Caregivers are amazing people.\u00a0 Most of them work very long hours, are under incredible emotional pressure, and have little support.\u00a0 They want so badly to do the very best for their loved one. The following story was shared by a woman caring …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[191],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletters"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-08-31 20:04:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146044,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146043\/revisions\/146044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}