With this week's blast of Arctic weather, and dangerously cold wind-chill conditions bringing temps well below freezing, it's important to check on your elderly family, friends, and neighbors.

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While it's wonderful and empowering for our senior citizens to live alone and independently, it can also cause their loved ones to worry, especially if they're not able to stop in and visit, or don't live locally.  What happens if an older person accidentally injures themselves or has some sort of medical emergency and is unable to call for help?

The same is true for adults with disabilities.

In these cases, it would be good to have some sort of daily system set up to touch base with men and women who live independently to make sure they're doing alright.

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Luckily, such a system exists. It used to be only in the Bangor area but is now state-wide and run by a staff of volunteers through the hospital system.

According to the folks at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, the program is called "Caring Calls" and it was started back in 1979.

"Caring Calls is a free program that provides daily telephone contact for any individual who lives alone...Volunteers come to the Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center located on State Street in Bangor to make the calls. They staff the phone lines Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 9:30 am...Maine has the oldest population in the nation, and we recognize many Maine seniors can benefit from a daily check-in call."

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Hospital representatives say some folks, once assigned a time to call in, will call in earlier to leave a message that all is well if they don't plan to have a quick chat with the volunteers. Others will wait and speak briefly to the volunteer when they touch base. Either way, there's a way to account for each participant, and when volunteers cannot get ahold of someone, there's a plan in place to follow up and make sure that person is located, or that help is called if they're in distress.

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Caring Calls is especially helpful to Seniors living independently who have pets, as it provides them with some peace of mind, knowing that if something does happen, their pets will not go unattended for long periods.

If you're interested in finding out more, you can email the Caring Calls coordinator at Northern Light, Laura Lacasse  llcasse@northernlight.org.

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