Falls and locked doors get the attention, but the earlier warning usually sits in the mail pile and the appointment book. A bill that is paid late, a visit that gets rescheduled twice, and a call that goes unreturned are easy to explain one at a time. Taken together, across more than one category, they are a pattern worth acting on.

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Read the paper that is already there

Look at the mail, the kitchen counter and the desk. Check for unopened envelopes, past-due notices, shutoff warnings, and bank or card alerts. Note which items are new since your last visit. You are not reading his correspondence for entertainment. You are looking for the kind of missed notice that turns into a service cut or a late fee.

Count the missed appointments

Write down every appointment you know about for the last three months, including dentist, eye, lab, and follow-up visits. Mark each one as kept, moved, or missed. Ask the offices directly whether a visit was cancelled by him or by them. A visit that was cancelled and never rebooked is the item most likely to be forgotten.

Tell a bad week from a pattern

One missed item in one category can be a bad week. Two or three in different categories, such as a missed bill, a skipped visit and a refill that was never picked up, usually means the system he used to run his life has stopped working. That is the point to change how things are handled, not to wait for the next incident.

Check who sees each account

Find out which bills and accounts are in his name only, which are shared, and which already route notices to someone else. Do not assume you have access. Ask the utility, bank and insurer what their own process is for adding a contact or receiving copies, and keep notes of what each one tells you.

Next move

This week, build a single sheet with three columns, bills, appointments and calls, and fill in what you can find. Then book the first missed appointment yourself, with him on the phone if he will allow it, and mark the bill that is closest to a shutoff.