Blogs

For immediate release:
Sept. 22, 2016

Contact:
Maria Thomas,
Communications Coordinator
mariathomas@trucare.org

LAFAYETTE, CO – TRU Community Care – founded in 1976 as the first hospice in Colorado – is pleased to announce it has been awarded $100,000 in grant funding by the Colorado Health Foundation to increase access to primary care services for elderly individuals through telehealth.

The grant will be used to extend the ability to monitor and assess patients between physician and home health visits for those with chronic diseases in TRU’s new PACE program (Program for All-Inclusive Care of the Elderly). Telehealth includes equipment, connectivity, clinician consultations via electronic communications, monitoring of vital signs, and other symptoms related to chronic disease.

As a result of the grant funding, there will be increased access to primary care services for patients with chronic conditions and reduced isolation for seniors in our community. The telehealth tools will allow clinicians and others to proactively, rather than reactively, manage patients with chronic conditions, with the goal of keeping patients healthier, living independently, and reducing unnecessary emergency department visits and hospitalizations.

TRU PACE is scheduled to open in early 2017, and is the first time this program will be offered in Boulder and southwest Weld Counties and beyond. Once PACE is open, the goal is to enroll at least 40 seniors in the first year who can benefit from TRU’s continuum of care model for years, as oppose to months. PACE participants will have access to a primary care physician, health condition specialists, nutrition, group activities, physical therapy and more – all in one convenient location. The goal of the program is to keep seniors in their home, increasing the quality of life for this ever-expanding population.

TRU Community Care serves Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette, Broomfield, Erie and beyond. TRU Hospice of Northern Colorado offers services in Greeley and extends to Weld and Larimer counties. Additional services include grief support, which is available to anyone in the community free of charge. It is a privilege for us to help those who are grieving regain their balance and resume healthy living. Grief groups include adult, teen and child as well as equine therapy. At TRU Community Care, we add life to days, because that’s what TRUly matters. The sooner you call, the sooner we can help – 303.442.0961 or visit trucare.org.

The Colorado Health Foundation works to make Colorado the healthiest state in the nation by ensuring that all Colorado kids are fit and healthy and that all Coloradans achieve stable, affordable and adequate health coverage to improve their health with support from a network of primary health care and community services. To advance our mission, the Foundation engages the community through grantmaking, public policy, investing in evaluation, private sector partnerships and strategic communications. For more information, please visit www.ColoradoHealth.org.

Social media networking sites are a place where users come together and share common interests. These social websites require a minimum amount of personal information to join. Identity thieves gain access to personal identity information and use it for their benefits. It is so hard to catch identity thieves and fraudsters who take advantage of business proprietor that do not have protection precautions for their business. Identity theft is becoming a serious problem in the world and is becoming harder & harder to protect personal data. New ways to steal identity are coming about every day with advanced technology like internet, smartphone, laptop and computer. . It is highly recommended to use identity theft protection services like Identity Guard to remain safe from fraudsters

In 2012 a scam involving Facebook created as an attempt to use steal financial information from social media users.  Hackers impersonating Facebook security to hijacked user’s account and used these accounts to send fake messages to other users. The Identity Theft Resource Center surveyed –more than 10 million Americans per year fall prey to identity theft while about 45% of online consumers fear about identity theft. Results show that even though numbers of days that identity thieves misuse the stolen identity increases in comparison of previous years.

Identity theft may steal or misuse the following profile elements:

• Name
• Date of Birth
• School Location
• Graduation Dates
• Relationship Status
• Home Town
• Interests & Hobbies

Social media has both positive and negative effect on business – positive: it gives the ability to increase business, brand image, sales and consumer connections through websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Negative - it includes many risks on business:

• To use intellectual property without permission
• To steal trade secrets or confidential information
• To steal information of employees and customers
• To make false claims
• To commit trademark infringement or copyright
• Giving password or other account details to people you know
• Download free applications
• Accept invitations from unfamiliar person
• Having low privacy or no privacy settings
• Email scams or phishing ask you to update social networking profiles
• Participate in quizzes
• Using out dated antivirus or anti-malware
• Clicking on links that redirect to others websites

 Risk Management Factors to Protect Business from Social Media Risks:

1.  Develop Crisis Management Plan

 Create a crisis plan that should state what is accepted or not accepted in social media. It should have details of employee and employer protocol in data breach, consumer’s complaints, injured employees details and social media issues.

2.  Develop Social Media Policy

Creating a social media policy will effectively reduce the potential of misuse. Many companies cover social media use in confidentiality agreement or an employee handbook on how to customize a best practices policy for a particular business. These social media policy may include:

• Guidelines about disclosures
• Limit access to social media websites
• Filtering content
• Procedure of updating antivirus or anti-malware daily
• Wireless policy about mobile devices
• Training for employees to inform latest risks of social media
• Revised policy about new technology or social media

3.  Educate and Give Training to Employee

It is a best way to protect employees, to give them training and information regarding safety and management of customer’s information. Review the privacy policies and settings on accounts to make sure the information is shared with known person. Be sure to have information policy of record management consistent for all communication and correspondence with social media.

4. Recognition of Social Media Risks

Many common risks of social media can also amplify and accelerate risks and damage is inflicted on company’s brand both in terms of scope and speed. Most of the social media sites ask personal information and business information from users and they have experienced data-breach events. Identity thieves are using social media to create more opportunities to steal identities and commit fraud nowadays. It is important to businesses to identify social media risks of theft and data breach and plan according to essential solutions.

How to Protect Businesses from Identity Theft via Social Media Channels:

• Use high level of security settings that websites allows
• Read privacy and security policies carefully
• Verify emails and links in emails
• Scan attachments of emails before downloading them
• Install updated antivirus or anti-malware
• Install a firewall
• Always use HTTPS based websites
• Beware of hidden file extensions
• Use commonsense while using internet
• Be certain of both source and content of each file
• Educate employees about scams via emails, phone calls and internet
• Turn off Wi-Fi connection when not in use
• Do not browse adult websites
• Do not enable auto log in
• Do not enable auto saver password in browser
• Use strong and unique passwords for websites
• Change passwords frequently
• Close old accounts that are not in use
• Keep communications network secure

LAFAYETTE, COLORADO – More than 100 guests will get their groove on September 17 at TRU Community Care’s Peace, Love & PIZZAZ! 2016, the nonprofit’s largest fundraiser of the year. This annual gala helps raise funds for the compassionate end-of-life care and grief services that TRU provides to our local community.

Held at the Denver Marriott Westminster, guests will enjoy a silent auction, dinner, games of chance as well as a live auction. Local band Soul School will perform a variety of 70s hits sure to get people on the dance floor.

Silent auction items include several jewelry items courtesy of Snyder Jewelers, Inc., a gourmet Celestial Seasonings gift basket, gift certificates to many local area restaurants, a golf package, and an overnight stay at a local hotel including breakfast and champagne for two.

TRU Community Care is celebrating its 40^th year of service to the Boulder community this year. What better way to celebrate than with a tribute to the decade that started it all? Don’t miss out on the fun!

Purchase tickets now to Peace, Love & PIZZAZ!

TRU Community Care serves Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette, Broomfield, Erie, and beyond. TRU Hospice of Northern Colorado offers services in Greeley and extends to Weld and Larimer counties.

Additional services include grief support, which is available to anyone in the community. It is a privilege for us to help those who are grieving regain their balance and resume healthy living. Grief groups include adult, teen, and child as well as equine therapy.

At TRU Community Care, we add life to days, because that’s what TRUly matters. The sooner you call, the sooner we can help – 303.442.0961 or visit trucare.org