Surfing The Web

Information for Seniors on the Internet

By Dick Travis

This article attempts to help seniors to explore Internet resources with information regarding their health, living standards, caregiving, elder care, federal services, long term care and other subjects important to seniors.

The Administration on Aging has a web-site which not only keeps seniors up-to-date on newsworthy events, but gives them assistance by organizing many of the problems and challenges of aging. The web-site is found at http://www.aoa.dhhs.gov/.

This web-site is well organized and always indicates when you will be clicking on a link that takes you “off-site”. Looking around the AOA site is quite easy, but it is nice to know that you aren’t being led intentionally to another interesting site somewhere else on the internet and never find your way back. Remember, generally, when you go to another web-site you have to hit the “back” button to get back to your original site—sometimes you may have to hit “back” quite a few times if you have been “surfing” many linked sites.

I would recommend keeping this site in your favorites to enable you to keep current with aging news and several features regarding health care and elder care.

As you become more familiar with the contents of this site—you will notice another page called “Aging Internet Information Notes”. The address is http://www.aoa.dhhs.gov/prof/notes/notes.asp. I would recommend putting this address in your favorites as well.

Here you will find over 60 or so senior-related subjects of interest with information and links provided, so that you can be sure to keep up on a particular area, such as Alzheimer’s, Long Term Care, Fraud and Abuses and Volunteering—to name a few.

Many people are now using Google as their main search engine and that is fine, however, there are times that even Google can be intimidating with the number of links being so large that it seems an insurmountable task to check out your query. That is why this site can be a place where you can rely on the AOA to edit the news, whether it is the latest news or reference information on the 60 or so particular subject areas covered so well by this organization.

The internet can be your ultimate choice in pulling together all the news, information and reference material you need to maintain and improve your life style and your health. Have fun and don’t forget to keep these sites in your favorites for future use.

Happy surfing…Dick Travis