Insurance

10 Ways to Make Your Loved One Feel at Home and Independent

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Support an aging family member with household upgrades, new products

by Sarah Elizabeth Adler, AARP, December 15, 2021 | | Loved One| Shield Insurance Blog | Start A Quote Today!

Is your loved one aging in place? Part of helping someone do that successfully involves limiting risks — but at the same time allowing for Mom, Dad or another family member to maintain independence. Consider these smart choices around the house for added safety, autonomy and a sense of connection.

1. Smart speakers

These multipurpose devices function like voice-controlled virtual assistants: Ask to listen to music, set medication reminders, hear the weather forecast or even control compatible home fixtures such as a smart thermostat with the sound of your voice.

2. Nonslip rug grips

Slippery area rugs pose a fall risk and can be tricky to navigate for those who use mobility aids like a walker or cane. If you don’t want to remove area rugs altogether, consider adding a nonslip layer for safety: Opt for a nonskid carpet pad under each rug, or use adhesive corner grips or double-sided carpet tape to secure edges and keep corners from curling.

3. Digital photo frames

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Mood Disorder: Employers Have Employees Suffering

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RiskAndInsurance.com | By: Raquel Moreno | Mood Disorder | Dec 8, 2021| Shield Blog | Start A Quote

Employers: More Likely Than Not, You Have an Employee Suffering from a Mood Disorder. How You Respond Matters

With the pandemic negatively impacting the mental health of 36% of U.S. adults, according to a recent NAMI study, providing support at work is now a business imperative.

If a silver lining can be found in the collective impact the world has experienced throughout the pandemic, perhaps greater awareness around mental health would be it.

“One of the positive things that came out of the pandemic is the de-stigmatizing of mental health,” Dr. Geralyn Datz, president and clinical director for Southern Behavioral Medicine Associates confirmed.

“It’s become okay to talk about mental health; you’ll even hear people say, ‘I’m anxious today’ or ‘[I’m] down today’ or what have you.”

Having the space to be more open about our moods, especially in the workplace, can even be a step toward prevention, as Dr. Ann Hawkins, founder and chief innovation officer for 24hr Virtual Clinic, noted.

It’s not just a matter of occasionally feeling happy, sad, cranky or upbeat. Moods can be “the precursor for many behavioral or mental health situations,” Hawkins said.

Overwhelmingly, U.S. adults are aware of the impact that one’s mood and mental health has on various facets of life. Eighty-six percent of adults who participated in a recent study by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) agreed that “mood disorders can significantly interfere with thoughts, behavior, activity, and physical health.”

Examining the feedback from over 1,500 U.S. adults without a mood disorder, the study aimed at exploring today’s general perceptions on mood disorders, as well as the lived experiences of more than 2,000 U.S. adults diagnosed with a mood disorder and over 500 of their caregivers.

For over two decades, global and domestic studies have steadily confirmed that mood disorders, such as depression, account for the largest disease burden impacting workplace performance and safety.

The NAMI survey added to the body of evidence with 25% of adults with a mood disorder reporting a significant number of lost days at work or a loss of employment.

With 36% of U.S. adults confirming that the pandemic has had a negative impact on their overall mental health, and 25% reporting the pandemic having negatively impacted their productivity at work, helping people navigate their mental health at work is no longer optional for businesses looking to manage health-related costs.

“In this past year, mental health support went from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a business imperative,” Datz confirmed.

Costly Symptoms of Mood Disorders

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Teens Build Bus Stop Shelter for 5-Year-old Wheelchair User, Protecting Him From Harsh Weather

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GoodNewsNetwork | By Ailsa Ross | Dec 20, 2021

Teenagers have built a bus stop shelter for a five-year-old boy who uses a wheelchair after noticing he got wet while waiting for the school bus in winter.

Five-year-old Ryder Killam has had to battle rain, wind, and snow for about 15 minutes every day, using only a patio umbrella as protection.

But after hearing about his problem, local students in Bradford, Rhode Island, got to work and built him his own bus shelter for the bottom of his driveway during their construction lessons.

Ryder’s father Tim said, “Ryder uses it every day before school and his nurses wait inside it every day while they await his return home.

“He does like to go hang out in it from time to time as his fort as well.

“This project brought out community together a bit, it showed that there is still so much good in this world and town!”

Bus Stop Shelter

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Shield Insurance is helping Roslyn & Maddox by donating $25 to the family for each non-client who gets a quote from Shield

Shield’s Referral Program is Changing Lives in the Local Community!

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Shield Referral Program Supports Local Sparta, Michigan Family

Your referral can make a difference for Roslyn and Maddox who both have a form of Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenital. Shield Insurance is helping this Sparta, MI family by donating $25 for each non-client who gets a quote from us.

No purchase is necessary!

CLICK HERE to get a quote and we’ll donate $25 to them! (Be sure to mention Roslyn and Maddox in the comment section!) You can also call or text the office (616) 896-4600 and one of our agents will take a few minutes of your time to offer up a quote. Don’t forget to mention Ros and Maddox

Your Referrals to Shield Insurance Agency Help a Local Family in Need

“The highest compliment we can receive is the referral of your friends, family & business associates. Thank you for your trust!”

Meet Roslyn
Roslyn and Shield Insurance Agency Referral Program

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She became friends with her Uber passenger then, like family, took a large pay cut to be his caretaker.

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Washington Post | By Sydney Page | December 9, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. EST | Like Family | Shield Blog

She became friends with her Uber passenger. They became like family, and she took a large pay cut to be his caretaker.

All it took was a five-minute car ride for Jenni Tekletsion to foster a friendship with her 88-year-old Uber passenger.

She met Paul Webb in March 2020, when he called an Uber to take him to a nearby Verizon store to get his cellphone fixed.

Tekletsion, 52, picked him up in her gray Toyota RAV4 at his home in Columbus, Ohio, where he lives alone.

“From the start, we really connected,” she said.

The feeling was mutual: “She was very personable, easy to talk to,” said Webb, who was diagnosed with dementia several years ago and has been unable to drive since having a stroke in 2017.

Only a few minutes into their car ride that day, “I could tell how lonely he was,” Tekletsion said. “I had a feeling that he needed help. I told him I live nearby his house, so I said, ‘From now on, when you need a ride, just call me.’https://fbe8d7153d534fc1148fc787bcfc9583.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

“I will take care of you,” she told him, and gave the stranger her phone number. “He trusted me.”

Webb took her up on the offer and called the following day, asking for a ride to a nearby gas station to buy milk.

In a matter of weeks, he called more often, and she also came by to check on him.

“I started coming here every single day after work to take him out to eat,” said Tekletsion, who was working remotely as a banker for a financial institution while also working toward her doctoral degree in business administration at Franklin University, which she is still pursuing.

Like Family

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9 Things You MUST Do Today to Grow Your Small Business

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SmallBizTrends.com | Published: Apr 29, 2018 Last Updated: Jan 22, 2021 | by Jeff Charles In Startup19

Growing a small business isn’t easy. It is one of the toughest challenges many face when they are looking to get out of the 9 – 5 daily grind.

The success of your small business depends on your efforts to grow profits using various methods. From employee training to marketing, every aspect of your business deserves attention.

Rapid growth doesn’t happen overnight, but there are several steps you must take to keep your business moving forward. It takes time and effort. However, when you start reaping the benefits, you will see that your effort is worth it. Here are some tips to consider if you wish to see your business grow.

How to Grow Your Small Business

Understand Your Customers

You can only develop products and services that will be a huge hit if you are attentive to the needs of your customers and prospects. One way to understand exactly what your customers want is through research and surveys.

You should be constantly inviting them to provide honest, even brutal feedback. Reviews and surveys are the best ways to get inside the mind of your customers. This makes it easier for you to develop products and services that are suitable to the current demands of the market. Moreover, it helps you understand the areas in which your company needs to improve.

Improve Customer Service

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Five Essentials to Include in Your Holiday Wellness Baskets

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Creating a favor kit stocked with COVID-19 must-haves, from masks to hand sanitizer, is a thoughtful touch if you’re hosting a handful of guests this season.

MarthaStewart.com | By Blythe Copeland | November 24, 2020 | Holiday Wellness Baskets

Hosting a smaller-than-usual holiday gathering frees up time (and money) for extra-special touches you might not have been able to organize in past years—and there’s no better favor for 2020 than individual wellness baskets. They’re beneficial from a health perspective, says Dr. Stephen Kissler of the Harvard School of Public Health: “This is classic public health prevention stuff,” he says. “Empowering people to prevent illness in themselves and from spreading it to others is great. It’s exactly what we should be doing—and I think wellness baskets are a really good approach to that.”

And when stocked with handy essentials and wrapped in festive packaging, wellness baskets make your guests not just healthy, but happy, too. “Guests will immediately feel special on an individual level and will remember your party for months and even years to come,” says Jamie Kutchman Wynne, founder and CEO of custom gift box curators Marigold and Grey. “2020 hasn’t been the kindest and so it’s more important than ever to let people know that they matter to you. This one simple gesture of thoughtfulness will go a long way and could be just the expression of kindness and generosity they need for their spirits to be lifted.” Ahead, several essentials to include in your kits.

Holiday Wellness Baskets

Hand Sanitizer

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The Great Resignation is hitting these industries hardest

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Fortune.com | MEGAN LEONHARDT | November 16, 2021 2:39 PM EST

The so-called Great Resignation picked up steam last week as quit rates reached record highs of 4.4 million in September alone, a whopping 3% of all Americans. But the trend of workers walking off the job isn’t consistent across all sectors. 

Quitting rates are especially high for in-person roles in traditionally lower-paying industries, according to the latest data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.

The industries hit hardest by quits in September are leisure and hospitality—including those who work in the arts and entertainment, as well as in restaurants and hotels—trade, transportation and utilities, professional services, and retail. 

When it comes to leisure and hospitality specifically, the industry logged nearly a million quits—987,000—with most coming from accommodation and food services workers.

Industries with highest percentages of workers quitting

The number of quits rose to a record high of 4.4 million in September 2021.

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Getting Health Insurance in Michigan

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Most people get their health insurance through an employer, though there are other health insurance plans that are available for those who don’t qualify or who are unemployed or self-employed. If you are shopping for health insurance, we can help. Call us at Shield Insurance Agency in Michigan to find out more about the types of plans available and more.

Health Insurance for the Self-Employed

Many people who are otherwise uninsured get a catastrophic health policy. This is an affordable plan that protects you against very high medical bills but that doesn’t cover lower ones. These plans generally have a very high deductible. However, some of these policies come with a discount for lower-priced medical bills. These policies are often chosen by those who are self-employed because they don’t get health insurance through an employer and regular health coverage can be highly expensive.

Insurance From an Employer

If you are a business shopping for health insurance for your business and its employees, we can help. We can assist with the shopping process by finding out what kind of coverage you need and matching that to health plans that are available in Michigan. We can help you to shop around for the best price as well. When it comes to health insurance, we are highly knowledgeable and ready to assist you with every step of getting health insurance for your business. Employees today have certain expectations when it comes to health insurance benefits, and we can help you to reach those expectations.

Get Your Health Insurance

Whether you’re unemployed, self-employed or you need a health plan for your employees, we are ready to assist you with the whole process. Shopping for health insurance can be complicated, and we can help you to make sense of it all. Give us a call at Shield Insurance Agency in Michigan.

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4 hidden ways erodes your culture (and how to avoid them)

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The Business Journal
By Heinan Landa  –  Contributing Writer | Aug 12, 2021, 4:05am EDT

More than a year after the pandemic turned much of the workforce virtual, fewer than 1 in 5 business owners intends to return to pre-pandemic office conditions, and the majority of U.S. workers want to maintain some regular telework schedule going forward.

Ultimately, most of us will settle into hybrid work where some employees are in the office and some are working remotely on any given day.

While hybrid work offers many benefits to our teams — and by extension our businesses — it also opens the door to a number of subtle culture killers that can do serious damage to engagement and retention.

Top 4 unexpected culture killers

1. Meetings

As tired as we may be of all-virtual meetings on Zoom or Teams, in this format each participant takes up the same amount of space, has the same means of contributing, and experiences that meeting the same way.

Now, consider a meeting where half the participants are in the office and half are at home. Can the remote participants distinguish who is speaking when? Do they have the same access to whiteboarding or visuals? How hard will it be for them to interject and be heard?

A return to the office also means a return to spontaneous chit-chat that snowballs into breakthrough ideas. Do you have a way to quickly pull more people into a conversation on the fly? Is collaborative note-taking an option?

2. Team-building

BizJournal.com

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