Lesley Cunningham – a partner in the Senior Issues team suggests some timely winter preparations

As winter approaches…………………..

It is time to start thinking ahead about the cold weather.  Our last two Scottish winters have been pretty severe with long cold spells and quite major snow falls.  Older people can find the winter season very challenging and difficult.  However, with a little forward planning some sensible precautions could be taken to make things better even in the worst weather.  And these precautions needn’t cost an arm and a leg!  Here are just a few suggestions.

Winter clothes and footwear.   Rake through the wardrobe and get these out and on the minute the weather turns chilly.  Consider purchasing a decent supply of thermal underwear.  This underwear is really effective and now can be bought cheaply form many locations.  It is the same with footwear – if you haven’t already got safe warm boots these can now be purchased and reasonable prices from all sorts of outlets.

Food.   Start now stocking up for the coldest months – generally December, January and February.   Buy some extra tins and long life food every week for the next few weeks and make a wee foodstore you can use when getting out is difficult.  Bottle tap water in used bottles and place that with your store.  Make sure you have a tin opener with it and some extra toiletries would be an idea too.  You want to be able to get by for a while without leaving the house during a cold spell.  Make sure some of your food is “ready to eat” in case your power supply is interrupted.

Getting about.   Builders’ salt can be bought and stored – it is not expensive.  Falls can be avoided if pathways are salted.  But have you someone to lay it down for you?   If not ask a friend or relative to standby.  Have you someone able to do errands for you for prescriptions or whatever? 

Communications.   If you lose power for a period it is important to keep in touch with what is happening.  A battery operated radio is useful and make sure you know local station frequencies.  List somewhere safe all your important telephone numbers in an easily readable way.  This list should include friends, relatives but also health centres and other important services.  A mobile phone is very useful if it can be afforded!

Power.   Thankfully most of us do not experience long power cuts.  But be prepared anyway – even a short interruption of supply can be most upsetting.  You need to have available and easily found candles, matches and a torch with spare batteries.  Also place somewhere safe and easily located spare house and car keys if you have a car.  In the same “safe place“ it is a good idea to keep a spare set of spectacles and some pencils and paper. 

First Aid.   A small kit is useful for the house and car.  These can be cheaply bought nowadays or made up. 

Transport.   If  you have a car make sure before winter it is fully serviced and the tyres have been checked.  An emergency kit consisting of some food, water, even blankets and a can of diesel or petrol and a spade is no bad thing to keep in the car over winter.

Legal and money issues.   We always recommend to older people that they should appoint a trusted person as their attorney.  That person can step in and act for the benefit of the older person should that person not be able to act for themselves. Generally this is with illness in mind but the attorney can still step in and do things such as collection pensions, benefits or indeed doing anything for the older person who may just not be able to attend to things by reason of being snowed in!  So before winter sets in, its a good time to think about appointing an attorney.  And remember most pensioners in Scotland will get legal aid to have this work done free of charge!