How to Develop a Care Plan

So how to develop a care plan for your aging loved one? A care plan can give you the confidence that you’re meeting your loved one’s needs by helping you organize and prioritize caregiving tasks. A care plan is a form that outlines someone’s health conditions, current treatments, and specific care requirements. The plan should summarize what needs to be done to meet the person’s care needs.

How to develop a care plan for both the care recipient and the caregiver

• For the care recipient– Start by listing all of your loved one’s needs such as assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living. Also, note their particular interests and goals for their care. Prioritize what is important to them.
• For the family caregiver– Write down the caregiver’s responsibilities in all parts of their life, not just caregiving-specific duties. This list gives everyone involved in your loved one’s care a better understanding of the load the caregiver is carrying.
• Review the above list of needs– Look over the needs of both the care recipient and family caregiver. Assess if fulfilling all these needs is manageable for the family caregiver. If it’s too much, consider seeking extra support or removing some tasks from the list.
• Prioritize the unassigned tasks– Figure out a solution to the unassigned tasks. Can these duties be maintained by tweaking how often it’s done, or by eliminating lesser priorities?
• Match the remaining tasks– Assign remaining responsibilities to the list of people and professional services involved in your loved one’s care.

Example of a care recipient’s care plan

A list of all activities your aging loved one needs assistance with and how you plan to help them:
Meal preparation:

• Use meals on wheels 4 x a week
• family brings dinners 4 x a week
• friends/neighbors 1 x week
• frozen dinners are back up
• The caregiver makes dinner 3 x a week

Money Management: Family members are in charge of paying bills and balancing checkbooks monthly.

Transportation: Caregiver and friend in charge of driving them to doctors’ appointments. Taxi service as a backup.

Medication management: Pharmacy service packages medications and delivers them to the house.

Secretary: The caregiver is in charge of scheduling appointments, communicating updates, managing schedules of all services, and maintaining who is doing what and when.

Church service: Care recipient’s goal is to keep volunteering at the church. A church member will drive them weekly.

Example of a caregiver’s care plan

A list of all activities in a caregiver’s life and how they plan to manage them:

• Family Meal prep: Caregiver 3 x week, spouse 3 x week, prepared foods and take out as a backup
• Housekeeping: Caregiver, spouse, children
• Laundry: spouse
• Grocery shopping: delivery or spouse
• Work responsibilities: Caregiver
• Driving children to after-school activities: caregiver, and carpool with school friends’ parents
• Helping with homework: Spouse
• School Committee: caregiver will take a short leave of absence
• Gym: Caregiver 1 hour 2 x week
• Reading: 1 hour 2 x week
• Socialization with friends: 1 or 2 x month
• Emotional and educational support: Caregiving support group 2 x month

When to rewrite the care plan

Reassessments should be scheduled to confront any changes in the senior’s physical, mental, or psycho-social needs. It is crucial to address the need for immediate modification in case of an emergency or drastic change in their health. Try to update the care plan at least once a year, or however often the person has a change in health and medications.

Creating a care plan is a great first step to taking care of your loved one. Establishing a written plan helps you prioritize their needs and improve their overall quality of life. 1+1 Cares provides additional tips and resources for making an elder care plan.

1+1 Cares is a referral agency that works for clients and caregivers. We match caregivers with clients and inform them of your requirements. We work for you so you and your loved one can have a safe, enjoyable caregiving experience.