Home Care Planning: How to Create a Care Plan for a Loved One

What is a Care Plan?

Care Plan is a document that keeps your loved one's health information, care instructions, treatments, medications, and relevant contact information together. This multi-page document can exist digitally on a phone, computer or on paper whatever is easier for you manage and access.

If you are caring for a family member or a friend with a chronic condition or a disability, you could be providing care for long term. In such a case, this document can be your one source of information from the past to present. This can also act like a checklist of tasks that you need to complete on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

Benefits of a Care Plan

A care plan can be your one source of truth when it comes to your caregiving responsibilities. These are some day-to-day benefits of creating and maintaining a care plan:

• Organize and prioritize caregiving activities. One of the pages can include the important tasks specially the ones that are in any kind of routine or are done frequently. You can use this as your to-do list for you to track the responsibilities and plan your day accordingly.

• Sense of control and confidence. A lack of plan can affect a caregiver’s confidence and lead to self-doubt. A care plan will allow you to think less about the daily tasks and give you more control in your day. Following the plan will avoid having to make decisions every day and help you feel less nervous about what you need to do and have done.

• Setting expectations. If your loved one needs support for daily living activities, you can prepare this plan with them. This will allow both of you to have a say in what the responsibilities are and set expectations.

• Respite care instructions. If you have been providing care for a long time and remember information as you would need it, a care plan might feel irrelevant to you. However, keeping an update plan can be help you provide information to someone who covers for you, in a situation when you are not able to provide care for any reason for a few days.

• Caring for multiple family members. Family caregivers often find themselves providing care to both parents or multiple people who can have different needs and medical conditions. Care plans can be especially helpful to keep track and faster information.

When to Start Creating Care Plan?

The best time is NOW. If you are just starting to take on some caregiving responsibilities or you have been providing care to a family member for years now, a care plan can help you be more efficient and make it slightly mentally easy for you to manage your responsibilities.

If you haven't always had a care plan but have been a caregiver for some time, now is a good time to collect past medical information, start noting down the tasks you complete and track the medications your loved one takes. It can feel like extra work to put the information together, but it can provide a sense of relief on a daily basis in the long run.

What should I Include in a Care Plan?

It includes important information about the family member you are caring for. It can be as detailed or brief as you would like.

Basic information

Include some information about the care recipient like name, phone number, age, date of birth, and address. Do not include personal identifying information for privacy and security.

Health conditions and information

This section is really important and should be as updated as frequent as possible. You should include any long-term conditions and specially symptoms or red flags to look out for. Adding any ongoing treatment can help you provide accurate information when you are talking to their healthcare providers.

Medications

List down all the medications they are currently taking regularly or even occasionally.

• Write down the dosage and when they started taking the medicines.

• An optional section would be the next refill.

• Especially if it is a new medication, write down any side effects to look out for and what can be done if any side effect shows.

Healthcare Providers Information

Keeping contact information of the primary care provider or other doctors can come in handy during appointments or emergencies. Here is a list of information you can put together:

• Health care providers information: Add their name, specialty, address, and phone number

• Hospital details: Note down the list of hospitals your loved ones go to or would prefer to go to during an emergency.

• Health insurance information: List down the insurance providers' name and their contact

• Caregiver information: If they have any respite caregivers, write down their names, contacts, and activities they support with.

Caregiver Information and Tasks

This could be the most important when you are starting off as a family caregiver. You can start by listing down all the activities your loved ones need help with or the tasks you complete.

• Create a schedule for the frequent tasks whether it's daily, weekly, or monthly.

• You can be as detailed as you would prefer. More details are helpful when you have someone else care for them sometimes or you hire a respite care when you are off.

Bonus tip: Use a care plan template by CDC. You can print it or use it digitally.

Keeping the Plan Updated and Accessible

Keeping the document up to date is essential for the care plan to be relevant for use in the long run. Check the information every month to see if the schedule, medications, and contact information are current details. You can keep digital and physical copies but make sure they are easy to access when you need them at home or at the doctors.