A teacher needs chalk and a doctor needs a stethoscope. So what items do family caregivers need?
This isn’t something that gets talked about much, but it’s worth thinking about. A call in the middle of the night informing you that your father has fallen in the bathroom can transform you from daughter or son to family caregiver in an instant.
Having the following five easy-to-find items at your fingertips can help you manage what comes next.
And what if you’re already knee-deep into caregiving? Then take a look at the list below and get in touch to tell me what I’m missing! 
The essentials:
1) A cell phone. This one seems pretty straightforward, but actually, it’s not. Almost every caregiver I’ve met has a cell phone, but not all caregivers know how to review missed calls and save the numbers of those who have called them as contacts. These are two timesaving features that can help a caregiver significantly when he or she is on the run or just at work and unable to answer a call immediately. If you’re not sure how to do these things on your phone, ask someone to show you.
2) A pen that writes. This is so basic that I’m almost embarrassed to list it…but not embarrassed enough. That’s because I can all but guarantee you that the long awaited call from the doctor or the rehab facility that you’d like your parent to go to will come when you least expect it. And when it does, there will be something in that conversation that you will want (or need) to write down. So when it comes to pens I say go wild! Buy a box or bag of your favorites and keep two inside your purse or jacket (and the rest by each phone in your home). This advice goes hand-in-hand with #3…
3) A small notebook that can fit in your purse or jacket pocket. When you’re caring for an aging parent, particularly if that parent has just had a crisis such as a hospitalization, information is likely to come at you quickly and from multiple directions. Discharge instructions alone can include information about medications, equipment, proper wound care, and on and on. If you’re not equipped to take notes, you can end up without a clue as to what should be done next and this can be a very scary feeling. The only thing worse than turning to the back of a napkin or a scrap of paper at the bottom of your bag is not taking notes at all.
4) A pocket calendar. A big part of caring for an aging parent is scheduling – scheduling the doctor’s appointments, scheduling a time for the nurse to draw blood or for the medical supply company to deliver the accessibility equipment. Being the keeper of this information, the one that ensures it all happens as planned, can be an overwhelming role. Having the ability to look at the “big picture” by recording appointments in a pocket calendar can be immensely helpful.
5) Access to important numbers. There will be some phone numbers that you’ll always want close at hand, like your mother’s primary care physician’s office or the local pharmacy that fills her prescriptions. However, other numbers will take precedence during specific episodes of care, like the number that rings in your mother’s hospital room, or the one that enables you to reach a nurse on her floor. For these reasons it makes enormous sense to create a centralized place to keep important numbers so that you can access them quickly when you’re on the go. I think an old-fashioned pocket-sized address book works just as well for this purpose as an App for your iPhone, but by all means – use what works best for you.
