Senior Information Fair | Life Ahead | PBS Fort Wayne

>> Good evening. I'm sure glad you're with us here tonight on PBS Fort Wayne because we're going to be talking about the senior information fair. You're going to want to drop this down on your calendar for the date and the Times because it's going to be so incredible this year and I have two guests with me to tell you a little bit more about that. First of all, I'd like to reintroduce you, if you will, to Betty Foster. >> So nice for you to come again. Well, thank you for having me. Such a busy woman with other things that you're doing. Plus now the fair the fact that you took a time to spend the evening with us that's really great. >> OK, and Betty brought with her another pretty important person as far as the fair's concerned and that is Vicky Morialta. >> Vicky, you I know you've been with the senior information officer for no I'm guessing probably somewhere in the neighborhood of fifteen. >> Oh my goodness yes. My goodness yes. That's a long time. And by the way, Vicky is actually the screening coordinator. What does that mean? Well, it means that the senior information officer has a lot of free screenings, health screenings that you can get and that he's going to tell us more about that as we move here throughout the evening. OK, let's start out by talking about who what when where are let's start with you. >> What is the senior information fair and this year is a big one because you're celebrating the 25th anniversary. That is correct. OK is correct who what when where it is going to be excuse me at Turnstone Classman Athletic Center on Thursday, September 19th from 9:00 a.m. to two p.m. and of course this is the twenty fifth year that we're celebrating of Oregon organizing the event each year . >> You know I always love when we talk about the senior information fair and I always tell this story not very interesting but I always tell it anyway. >> This is the twenty fifth anniversary I was at the first one you may not know that they tell you the story you had it downtown. >> It was called the Senior Community Center at the time was that part of Fort Wayne Parks and Rec Parks and Rec OK and a beautiful facility but of course much smaller and Murkowski was mayor then and they invited me to come and do some emceeing and help cut the ribbon with Mayor Halki and it was like so exciting. >> We had a couple of speakers but they had one room in the community center where the booths were and I I'm guessing you probably had records on this maybe twenty five vendors compared to how many do you have now? >> Well we have over 90 vendors. Pretty amazing. Yeah pretty amazing. So it has continued to grow and I know it's continued to grow throughout the year throughout these twenty five years and it moved eventually to the Fort Wayne downtown library that's and then is that been two or three years now at Turnstone. >> Twenty nineteen was our last year at the library was it OK all right and Turnstone is such a beautiful facility if you're not aware of it it's kind of across from Glenbrook. Oh there oh there's a wonderful picture but so if you're going to come to the fair it'll be easy for you to recognize it's kind of across from Glenbrook Square. >> Let's see would that be would you say North Clinton? It's it's at thirty three twenty North Clinton it's just down the road from Glenbrook Mall. >> Exactly. >> Exactly. And what else is along that. What is that where there's a fresh market it's farther up it's across Brooklyn used to be the target is is a long shot there and the car place is there but it's where Clinton in Coldwater split. >> Right. It's like if you go to the mall and if you're going that b e s s s OK. >> Yeah you're right it's no south and then at the stoplight right after Glenbrook right. Turn right and it'll be on your left side. >> Easy to remember. OK, how do they set up turn Turnstone for the activity for that day. >> Well we do Randle's for the tables and chairs yeah. However we have a board of fifteen or eighteen community volunt years from different area professional businesses in the area that our board members and we go in and finish the day before covering tables, putting our signs up and then at three o'clock we'll start helping unload vendors for early set up that day. Oh OK. So it all comes together to culminate on the day of set up and then you know we've got the 15 to 18 vendor or board members that throughout the year each one is assigned a specific task because the screening chair and she gets those arranged as the registration vendor register patients come in and follows up with them and we have somebody that takes care of the transportation arranging for seat and shuttle that we use to shuttle people down to Turnstone and back to Glenbrook if they can't find a parking place in the Turnstone once. >> And we're going to be looking at some more photos here and we'll just let you get home, take a look at those so you can get a sense of what the senior information officer is like and how said up there at Turnstone Ambika or at least some of the screening booths can you tell? Can't see that one but there sure like that. Yeah, they're kind of like that ,right. As you come in the door you will see the Walgreens screening or the vaccine clinic where there will be doing shingles, flu and pneumonia vaccines and that's right as you come in the door OK and then you just kind of walk around the track and as you walk around the track there's boots on both sides or tables on both sides. I think that one right there that you're looking at that is the diabetes treatment center and they were doing glucose that's something a little new. >> We've had it for several years. Yeah, but not since the very beginning. Now why is that valuable to get a glucose it's well it's not something that you can necessarily test by just going to the drugstore and picking up something and so the Parkview diabetes Treatment Center has a way that they do this and they use the nurses nursing students from University of Saint Francis and it's good experience for them too. And you come in you don't have to fast and they just do a quick little test and you get the results you get the results right there while you're there and then if your glucose is a little high they'll talk to you about it, maybe suggest that you go see your family physician or check into it further or if it's not you can go home feeling a little bit more comfortable because you've had enough. >> That's exactly I know you have what, 12, 15 different kinds of screening. >> We have about 15 this year. We have a number of hearing screens in various talk. Some are just putting earbuds in your ears and testing. Another one is in an actual sound booth soundproof type of booth. Another one puts a scope in your ear and looks for earwax or any damage that might be inside ear. >> So there's different kinds of ear screenings or of course blood pressure pressure balance and suddenly there's a stroke screening. >> I'm trying to think what else do we have? Oh, I know the diabetic she's screening diabetics and another one that's really important is IQ health and they provide an osteoporosis screen and I think that's cool. >> It's really easy. You take your shoes off, you put it in this little machine-al somehow it an x ray I don't think it's an x ray but maybe an ultrasound or something I'm not exactly certain. But they check the bone structure in the heel and that can give them an idea whether you might be leading towards osteoporosis or osteopenia. >> I think that is just really cool. I mean in this wonderful world of technology that we have now again if you would be interested in that that's the IU health health care kind of reminds me of when I was a kid. >> You go to the shoe store and the way they figure the size they had big machine and you'd stand on it and put your foot inside and did X-ray it and then it would tell your mom what size of shoes you should have. >> Right. This is the little machine that they use. >> It's almost like that and you just lay your foot on the your foot on your heel takes a couple of minutes I think and they let you know right there what your results are. >> One of the things that I think is so great is that they have all these health screenings again around fifteen that are free. >> That's the big word. So you know it and it can save you a lot of time because a lot of people if they want to know those things like if they have you know, whatever a balance issue or a diabetes sponsored possibility or anything like that or hearing whatever they might be paying a lot of copay to go to a doctor for each of those tests and yet you can get them all complimentary at the scene or information fair again Thursday, September 19th. >> Put it on your calendar now is just a few weeks away nine to two to two , nine to two . >> And I will say because I've been to the senior information for many, many, many times I don't feel like you have to be there at 9:00 in the morning because that is the busiest time everybody thinks they have to be there at 9:00. >> But if you even wait a little while, go a little later in the morning or even early in the afternoon, you're still going to get all of the opportunities to go to all the different booths and get to it might be easier for you to move around the area won't be quite so crowded parking. >> Let's talk about that since well visitors can park at any one of the three Turnstone apartments which they have plenty of space for disabled. OK, you know those man said yeah, but if we will have security out there helping people park and directing them to an open space and any one of those three dots but if the lots are full they will ask you to go to Glenbrook Mall and we have a designated parking lot right along cold water just north just across the street basically OK and then we more we provide there will be two shuttles running consistently back and forth to Turnstone that will take you down to Turnstone and you can walk right in the door and then when you're ready to leave there should be there will be a shuttle along very shortly that will be able to pick you up and take your bag back to the car at Glenbrook Mall. >> So you really worked it out. So it's just convenient for everybody in that is a lot more convenient than when it used to be downtown and while there were some parking it was still probably not enough easy parking for everybody and this is going to be great. >> OK, Vicki, let's go back to you. Why would you recommend people go to the senior information fair? You've been involved like so many years and you've talked to a lot of people. Why are they there and why why should we ask our viewers? >> OK, well it's a great opportunity to get a lot of information in just an easy format you can walk from vendor to vendor table to table. You can get all types of information if you are a senior there's information there that might that would be important to you. But if you're a caregiver for a senior, maybe your parents or even for years you know someone else that you know a neighbor somewhere. Yeah, this is a great opportunity to collect a lot of information, be able to share that with them, talk to the people that are actually working at the booth and know what their what their business is all about and the services that they offer and the different businesses. >> I'll tell you we'll have plenty of materials, you know, brochures or or information for you to take home or you know, just simply in talking to them you can learn a lot. In fact, I recently talked to somebody who had their will down and they had a business card for an attorney that they had met at Senior Information Fair three years ago but they enjoyed that converse station and learned so much from that person just happened to keep that card and by golly that came in pretty handy for them personally. >> Right, Betty, let's talk about lunch. Everybody wants to know about about parking and admission which there is none and the whole thing is a compliment to read the whole fair is free. >> OK, tell me about food we again this year because our 25th anniversary celebration have gangling catering the luncheon wonderful and we will have different types of the sandwiches and such. They've been fabulous to work with. It's so easy to serve and so we've upgraded a little bit for the special events and such but you know we'll do that as long as we can possibly afford to do it. >> Yeah. Oh is there a time period for lunch or do you have to have tickets or is that where they will get a lunch ticket if they stop at the senior information booth number twenty eight the morning of the fair and they do have to have that to get a lunch. It's going to be served from approximately eleven thirty until either this supply runs out or you know or two o'clock . OK again so the thing is if you think you might want to be eating lunch there at the fair maybe look at some of the booths and then have lunch and go back and look at some more again you need to go to Booth twenty eight booth twenty eight twenty eight which is the senior information that's what this is senior information fair and they have their own booth there and they and they will give you a lunch ticket. >> Correct OK all right we talked about screenings ask the pharmacist as one of the opportune dates what's that all about. >> Walgreens again will have a pharmacist there. So if you have questions about your medications, maybe you're taking more than one medication. Does one interact with the other and maybe you got them from different doctors and or maybe you're taking some over-the-counter items. You might want to ask the pharmacist about that or maybe you've been having some side effects and you'd say gee, I hate to call my doctor right now but can you help me? And the pharmacist is often able to give you very good information about that. >> I can think of ten questions right now for the form. Oh that's good. That's a good Oberto today. How about other materials that you might get? Is there anything that you know, people are always surprised that is available to them anything or depends on a lot of it is that as you go around to the different boosts, the different vendors you will find they have just a plethora of materials and so they're going to share anything they want that you might want to share and then you can take it home and read through it and figure out what's really important. >> They have bags to pass out some of the vendors will have bags to pass that you can just go along. >> Yeah, you can put your goodies or or the brochures in and because most dangerous will be giving away some type of goody at their table as far as whether it's candy or it is pens, pencils, no pads or Pilkington. >> Yes. Or pins or ruler or something like that. I want to hear about speakers because that's always kind of a cool thing. It's something really special but the committee puts together in order to give you some more information. Oh wait a minute. We do have a phone call coming in here and that's from Jim. >> Jim, thank you by the way for watching us here on PBS and watching LIFE Ahead. OK, Jim. Well, hold on. >> That's coming in here on the prompter for me. Will there be anyone at the fair to answer questions about HA about social secure today? OK, good question Jim again, will there be anyone at the fair to answer questions about Social Security? >> Do you have an answer for me? Betty, there will be you can either get information from an elder law attorney aging and in-home service that should have some information. >> I don't know that this security administration itself is going to be there but there will be somebody that a professional financial planner or someone an attorney and you always have that people expect when they hear about seeing your information fair they just think you're going to have booths about nursing homes and things like that. >> But no, I mean you have law . >> You have medical you have financial advisors. Right. All kinds of things. I know attorneys are going to be there because one of them will be a speaker and that's Jessica Dawson who's a regular with us here on life and I don't know if you knew that or not but she's been with us many, many times and I know that she's going to be one of the special speakers who else is speaking? >> Do you know Betty? Yes. Starting at nine thirty in the morning we have Nick Smith with the VA. >> Oh, there we go. Your question? Yes, northern Indiana and he will be checking on the VA enrollment in compensation pension in attendance. So that should be very informative for the veterans and the different ones that need that information. And then of course, Jessica, as you mentioned, she'll be talking at ten thirty in the morning and they're short sessions only about forty five minutes at the most. But there will be time for you to ask questions and get them answered by each one of them. She's going to be talking on navigating the powers of attorney and then also on Medicaid and as we all know there's been a lot of changes that's coming up for this next year or so. All of those to mourn and there are Medicare changes. Yes. Yes, I love that it's going to be talking about Medicare fraud. >> Yeah. People need to be aware of I know there's even a and you can find out about more about it after fair and talk to him or one of the attorneys. >> There's a scam out now where where people call you on the phone and they pretend that it's either Social Security or Medicare. >> Right. They might say you still owe us X number of dollars. >> Give me your charge card number right now. >> I mean don't fall for any of that. Ryan, you know, is very rampant in a senior market, especially if you have an elderly parent who lives by themselves. They are a prime target for that type of thing. I mean myself I get those type of calls and I get the type of calls that because so many places will call and say, you know, they're your Medicare provider or whatever. Right. And what they're trying to do is real you in to answering the questions so that you know then all of a sudden you find out that your provider if you have an advantage plan or something has changed because you've answered that and so you have to be very, very careful. So you know, my first question when I get a call like that and they use local numbers, that's the issue. Right? It's really high numbers and they can get our own area code to six zero. >> So you see that on your identifier or in your phone or whatever and you think oh yeah, that'll be a neighbor or friend. So you kind of trust it because you think it's local. Yeah, it may not. I got a call the other day which obviously was not from the Fort Wayne area or somebody from Fort Wayne but it looked like it was right and they told me that I had let's see I owed eighty two dollars for toll road fees toll road do we have a toll road around a few miles north of here but yeah I think there is a little problem there but they will try to get you I mean they'll reel you in and like I started to say my first question back to them when they get done with their spiel is and what company did you say yes yeah yeah. Or I tell them you know if they want you to sign up for something right now or there's that nice they will give me your number and I will I'd like to talk to my attorney whatever and then I'll call you back and they pretty much hang up. >> That's exactly what they do. OK, back to the senior information fair. We're going to keep repeating some of this information. Let's show you some more of the pictures that we have on file two of just the activities at the fair so you get a sense of what's you know, what's going to be happening there at Turnstone again that is September 19th, 9:00 am to 2:00 p.m. They have plenty of free parking out there at Turnstone and again that is September 19th, 9:00 to to we also have another phone call coming in by the way and this one's from Marie and she said this Be a good event for family members to learn about senior living all talk about that. >> Vicki, this is an excellent event to come out if you have a senior person in your family and sure want to know maybe you're already thinking is mom going to have to go to assisted living or or assisted assisted or independent living or that type thing? Think there will be a number of vendors there that you can talk to, pick up their literature, go home, look through and write and make a decision if that is close to where you live or I've heard about this company or maybe I want to look up people's comments on the Internet or something like so you can research it and then you can start reaching out to them and say I think my mom great place to start. >> It's a good place to start for sure. Well, the other factor of that is if you have a family member and you're looking for in-home care, we have to go to an in-home care which where there's around the clock or whether it is just somebody that needs to come in and assist with that, you know, daily household chores or weekly household chores or help them and cooking and things like that help them with their daily activities, check medications, things like that. >> You know, whether it's you need a home, care for a couple of hours a day or 24 hours a day, there are different companies that can provide that for sure. >> OK music oh there's always music senior information fair vickki you're smiling you know about the music there. >> Well I do because I know him personally. Oh you do? Yeah justice he does such a great he does and everybody loves him every I don't know a senior that doesn't know justice and he plays the music that they enjoy and he'll be playing from about eleven thirty to one or something around they'll be in the lunch area. >> Yes OK I didn't have lunch and just sit and listen to Joe and he's just such an entertainer that's great. >> Yeah I remember him from when I would go I certainly like I'm I'm going to jump in here remember last year we had one of the security people that was dancing with some of the seniors and they got so they were dining. >> Yes. >> It was so fun. I wish we had a picture of them. I did. Somebody does you know I may have sent one but maybe they use it. >> I don't know. Well, again, you just never know what's going to happen but it's always a good time and very I'll use that word informational and that's the senior information Turnstone that is on September 19th from 9:00 a.m. to two p.m. certainly there's going to be something there for everyone whether you're a senior or you care for a senior or your grandparents are seniors. I don't know. It's a good thing I'm a senior there you go to your and find out some information. Well, we've enjoyed having you with us tonight and we'll be here of course next Wednesday night at seven thirty eight right here. New topic and new gas meanwhile, have a great night. >> Stay safe and stay healthy The 2024 Senior Information Fair is Thursday, September 19th from 9 to 2 at the Turnstone Plassman Fieldhouse. Featuring four individual speakers, experts in aging related services, health screenings and a vaccine clinic. Onsite parking available. Overflow parking at Glenbrook Mall with shuttles to Turnstone. Details at seniorfair.info.