Caregiver’s Checklist

We have blogged on a number of occasions about the importance of caregivers. Kaiser Health Network (KHN) recently ran a story, A Practical To-Do List For Family Caregivers. The story starts by sharing experiences of an attorney who is the caregiver for her parents.  “On several occasions, doctors have treated this accomplished lawyer like she was an interloper — not the person to whom her elderly parents had entrusted health care and legal decision-making.”

Citing to the National Academies report on caregiving (which we blogged about previously), the KHN article offers some “recommendations …  extrapolated from its findings.”

• The caregiver needs to make sure that her status as caregiver is noted in the medical records of parents. “Thirty states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico have now passed versions of the Caregiver Advise, Record, Enable (CARE) Act, drafted by AARP, which calls for information about family caregivers to be included in hospital medical records.givers should double check that the doctors have their info and lists them as the emergency contact.”
• The caregiver needs to make sure she is capable of providing the needed care and her tasks incorporated into the parent’s care plan.
• The caregiver needs to be trained on how to do the tasks (especially medical ones) she will be completing.
• The caregiver needs access to her parent’s medical info (make sure the parent has ok’d access) and
• The caregiver should know and connect with helpful community resources.