Police, fire, senior care advocates part of ‘triad’

LYNN – It’s just a piece of cardboard the size of a computer floppy disk but the information written on her “file of life” could save Cindy LeBlanc’s life.The frequent visitor to Greater Lynn Senior Services keeps the list of her medications and doctors’ names in a plastic pouch attached with a magnet to her refrigerator.”If you have an emergency, the firemen know if they can’t give you something,” LeBlanc said.Firefighters, police officers and senior care advocates hope older Lynners and their neighbors in adjoining communities will adopt a similar attitude about their health and personal safety.They are members of the Essex Triad, a senior safety coalition that provides seniors with identification cards, a speakers’ series focusing on safety, and file of life cards.The coalition wants to make sure seniors are prepared for medical emergencies and help them take steps to avoid house break-ins, personal assaults, identity theft and telephone or door-to-door money scams.”If we all work together as a team, we can go a long, long ways,” said Lynn Triad Chairman Tom Miller.The cards are intended to shave precious seconds off an emergency medical response to an older person’s home and to avoid the possibility of responders administering the wrong medication to someone.”EMTs can pull out the card and take it with them,” said senior center director Stacey Minchello.Minchello said file of life is especially valuable to seniors who do not drive or do not live with someone who can drive.GLSS employees help seniors jot down their emergency information on a card and insert it into a pocket of a red refrigerator magnet. The Triad also provides seniors with yellow car stickers to alert medical personnel that the individual’s medical information is in their glove compartment.The program sponsors “shredding days” when seniors can bring important papers they no longer need to the senior center and have the documents shredded to prevent identity theft.Minchello said the Triad is preparing to launch a disaster preparedness program that will include helping seniors prepare a travel bag packed with two days worth of clothes, medication, toiletries and other items.A Feb. 1 fire on Andrew Street prompted the overnight evacuation of seniors living a half block away. Minchello said the Lynn Council on Aging is seeking a local volunteer to sponsor the evacuation kit program.