Caregivers assume an incredible amount of responsibility and
a majority of their responsibilities revolve around planning and keeping track
of most, if not all, of their loved one’s care needs. Usually, this is in the
form of tracking doctor’s appointments, managing their loved one’s medications,
and keeping track of important documents. Fortunately, with almost
everyone using a smartphone, there are a lot of technologies out there that can
help caregivers with this planning.
Keeping Track of Doctor’s Appointments:
It’s incredibly easy to lose those small business cards that
doctor’s offices give out for appointments. This can be especially difficult
for a caregiver trying to track multiple appointments with multiple physicians
and specialists. Tracking all of the appointments in a day planner is an
option, but remembering to bring the planner to every appointment can be
difficult. However, planning applications, such as Google Calendar, can
be a great asset. Appointments can be organized by color, so a certain
specialist can be assigned a specific color. This calendar can be accessed from
multiple platforms, and can be quickly pulled up while scheduling.
Managing Medications:
There are multiple medication management applications, and
most app stores allow users to browse through screenshots and reviews before
committing to one. There is a great application called RxmindMe Prescription.
This is a perfect application for caregivers. The application allows caregivers
to set up alerts on a daily, hourly, or weekly basis. The app allows caregivers
to be as specific or as general as they want. For example, a caregiver could
put in an alert that says “call mom to reminder her about heart medication,” or
the reminder could be more specific and state “remind mom to take 15 mg of
Doxycycline.” The best part of this application is the “Prescriptions”
feature. This allows caregivers to group specific medications in categories.
For example, heart medication, could be broken down into Lasix and Advair. In
addition to this, the caregivers can upload pictures of the pills and dosing
instructions for each medication to ensure that they are providing their loved
one with the correct medication.
General Caregiver Information:
Eldercare 911 is an app designed by Dr. Marion Somers
who is a Geriatric Care Manager, and it’s an incredible asset to caregivers. This is an incredibly helpful app that is designed to
provide caregivers with all of the information needed while in an eldercare
crisis. There is information regarding what to do before the crisis occurs, at
the hospital, while planning for discharge, post-hospital care and while in
recovery at home. Under each one of these categories are several sub-categories
with even more resources. For example, if a caregiver is preparing for the
discharge of your loved one from the hospital, this app provides information on
how to hire help for your home, dealing with feelings of being overwhelmed,
understanding adaptive equipment and more. It’s incredibly easy to
navigate, and the amount of resources in this app is astounding.
Currently, all of these applications are free in the iTunes
store. Caregivers may have to try a couple of applications before finding one
that works for them, but, in the time that they will save in the long run, it’s
worth adopting these technologies.
