Since birth we make decisions. Decisions that may vary in topic, relevance, importance according to our age. Young people feel that the decisions that are most important, most compelling, most imminent turn out to be real. Careers, jobs, family, love are indeed a never-ending preoccupation in a youth’s life. 

When the “senior citizens” or “retired” title becomes a reality, the idea of no problems, no worries, no decisions is just a utopia. There is of course more free time; there are an abundance of pleasantries and relaxation. Family is a joy or maybe a burden occasionally, it depends. Financially, one has hopefully been contributing to the system to now enjoy its benefits. But there is no doubt that the longer you live in life, the more experienced you are at making decisions because you have risked, learned from these risks and gained new knowledge.

Now, the need to make decisions always remains. As age advances making decisions may become a heavy load, especially when it comes to novel scenarios, unaccustomed situations out of our comfort zone, that place us under stressful and flustered moments. This is when decisions need to be made rapidly, prompted most of the time by intuition, feelings, and experience.

And one of these moments can definitely be weather related. Families, especially senior citizens, can experience real stressful moments when faced with a climate disaster in the area. When fast decisions are required, these become super important and may even be life changing. So, to avoid these undesirable moments the America Red Cross recommends, to make these decisions in advance, and be well prepared, by contacting your team, community – companions – friends – family, with whom to share difficult moments. Gathering indispensable supplies, medicine – key documents – communication devices and plan – batteries – emergency contact and kit, in the case of a possible natural disaster and imminent evacuation. And learning on how to make well thought out decisions that may have consequential outcomes. 

But if you do feel that a situation can exceed your ability to deal with it on your own, always remember that in these cases RED CROSS can offer a decision-making guidance with its Disaster Distress Helpline. If you need to talk to someone who will definitely provide options for a decision to be made, call or text 1-800-985-5990. You can also visit our website for other valuable resources, https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/older-adults.html.

Story By: Sue Hirschmann