§17 · 10 tips
How should you arrange an older person's guardianship, will and money ahead of time?
Tips from this section that apply in the United States.
While the older person's mind is still clear, spend a few hundred yuan at a notary office to have a written document made that states who will be their guardian in the future. Without this document, once the older person can no longer make decisions, a court has to appoint who signs for them and who manages their money. If family members disagree, it takes even longer.
People who defraud the elderly often start with small gifts and warm concern to build up trust, and then take a large sum in one go. Scammers also often insist "don't tell anyone." Agree on a rule beforehand: any payment above a certain amount has to be mentioned to a particular person first. That way the family gets to know, and the payment is also delayed a little.
Sales pitches and scams depend on pressure in the moment, to make you pay before you have time to think. When people get excited, they believe exaggerated ads more easily, and older people are more easily persuaded than younger ones. Agree on a line with the older person beforehand: "I have to go home and talk it over with my family." They can say it at any time, it gives them a way out on the spot, and they can decide after calming down at home.
Eldercare schemes that ask the older person to pay first and promise a return are all the same fraud: cards, buying beds, buying retirement apartments, travel-retirement, and meetings selling senior products. Under the rules, money lost this way is yours to bear. In one case someone took 136,000,000 yuan (1.36亿) by supposedly reserving beds in a retirement apartment, and harmed more than 2,100 people. The only thing you can stop is the moment of paying.
For an older person who already had a pressure sore before hip-fracture surgery, the chance of dying within 30 days is about 20% higher. Switching to a powered air mattress cuts new pressure sores by about 60%. Turning on schedule, when it is really done, cuts them by about 70%. Don't let the person lie face down for long. Every day, look at the tailbone, heels, hips, shoulders and back, and if you see a red area that doesn't fade when pressed, contact a nurse or doctor the same day.
For women aged 70 and over, having cataract surgery on the first eye promptly meant about 34% fewer falls in a year, and fewer broke a bone. But the number of people who fell at all did not drop. For the second eye, no clear difference in falls was seen. Among older people who had the surgery, hip fractures within a year were about 16% lower.
In the U.S., fractures among people aged 65 and over from falling while walking a dog on a leash rose from about 1,700 people a year to about 4,400, and about 80% were women. The hip was the most common fracture site, and nearly 30% were hospitalized. About three-quarters of hand injuries from dog leashes happened when the leash was wrapped around the hand and the dog yanked. So hold the leash in the palm, keep it short, and train the dog not to lunge.
These tips describe mainland-China rules and do not apply in the United States; they are here for people living in China.
The law recognizes 6 kinds of will, but if the form is wrong, the whole will is void, and this is the most common way it goes wrong. A will you write yourself must be handwritten by you from beginning to end, signed, with the year, month and day written out. If you made several wills whose contents conflict, the last one made counts. From 2021, a notarized will also no longer automatically ranks first.
There is only one proper way to live off your home: the insurance companies' reverse-mortgage eldercare insurance on a home (住房反向抵押养老保险), which is still a pilot. The kind that comes knocking on your door has nothing to do with it. It tricks older people into mortgaging their homes, and then uses the borrowed money to buy the financial products it recommends. Some people don't even know their homes have been mortgaged, and in the end they lose the home and are still left with the loan.
Long-term care insurance (长期护理保险) helps pay for hiring someone to provide care. If someone at home is severely disabled and has been for more than half a year, apply to the medical insurance bureau where they are insured. You don't have to pay care fees up front: it covers about 70% for those insured as employees and about 50% for those insured as urban and rural residents, and does not cover bed fees or meals. There is no age requirement, and a young person who is severely disabled can also apply.
