As Mother Nature strikes our area with winter cold blasts, the elderly could find themselves in potentially life threatening situations.
They may slip and fall, their car might break down, and they could get lost, confused or stranded – literally left out in the cold.
That’s why Visiting Angels, one of the nation’s largest in-home senior care agencies, has launched the ICE a Cell Phone Safety Campaign to help seniors in case of emergency.
To ICE a cell phone, you load emergency contacts in seniors’ phones with the word ICE in front of the emergency contacts’ names so when someone finds a senior in trouble they know who to call In Case of Emergency.
Visiting Angels will ICE a senior’s cell phone for free. Or they’ll teach families how to ICE a senior’s phone. They hope this will become a universal emergency plan – a quick way for emergency responders to pick up a senior’s cell phone, and press the letter ‘I’ to find seniors’ emergency contacts quickly.
How to ICE Seniors’ Cell Phones:
- Under ‘I’ in the cell phone contact list, load the In Case of Emergency contact names, beginning with the word ICE (ie: ICE_Heather).
- Make sure the emergency contact(s) agree to be an ICE partner.
- Include every phone number (home/cell/work) of the ICE partner.
- ICE partners should know the seniors’ medical conditions, doctors’ names and medications they’re taking.
- An ICE sticker can save a life. Place a Visiting Angels’ ICE Loaded sticker on seniors’ cell phones, so if someone finds a senior in trouble they know who to call in an emergency.