How to Simplify Family Caregiving and Establish Routine

Being a caregiver for a family member is never an easy task.

This requires someone to lay out multiple responsibilities and manage them simultaneously based on priority while still being able to do so despite emotional turmoil. To effectively handle and simplify family caregiving responsibilities, most rely on detailed reminders and note-taking. This is commonly done through a list of tasks personally catered to the caregiver’s capacity and availability. This ensures that everything is taken care of while considering the load to be manageable for the provider.

Everything sounds well and easy. However, underneath the carefully crafted list is a complicated process of organizing and planning. It’s essential to simplify family caregiving into manageable steps for anyone to step into the role and help.

But how is this done?

What Are the Foundations to Simplify Family Caregiving?

In Eleanor Gaccetta’s One Caregiver’s Journey, a book about life as a caregiver, readers are given a glimpse of what family caregiving truly entails. It details what the author had to juggle, the changes she had to cope with, and the issues that arose within the period, providing readers with a genuine account of a typical caregiver’s life. If the book is one thing, it’s a testimony to how arduous the role can be.

How Eleanor managed such a crucial responsibility of caring for her aging mother is something she’s made possible for herself. It’s achieved through careful consideration of her family and a thorough organizing of what she had to accomplish daily.

What works for her may not necessarily be effective for others.

However, Eleanor’s experience shows that to simplify family caregiving, the first thing caregivers have to do is understand the needs of their loved ones.

1. Build Routines Around Patient’s Needs

Being a family caregiver may seem like a relatively simpler role to handle. After all, they’re caring for someone already close to them whose needs and complications should already be familiar. However, care and support are too vague to provide.

To simplify family caregiving, caregivers must first conduct a thorough assessment of their patient’s emotional, medical, and daily needs. For effective support, the patient’s needs shouldn’t be lumped into one. Instead, caregivers have to carefully consider their “must-haves” and “nice-to-haves.”

What crucial matters should be provided—those significantly influencing their comfort and health? What will make them happy—things they don’t necessarily need but “deserve” to experience? It is essential to understand what will improve a patient’s living condition and build a routine around it.

2. Map Out a Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Schedule

Once caregivers have a clear picture of the support they need to provide, mapping them out into sections is the next best action. However, most may only think of building a daily routine. While this isn’t wrong, there is still a better approach to scheduling. Instead of focusing on daily tasks, why not expand it and consider weekly and monthly needs?

Doing so not only saves time and gives caregivers a sense of certainty but also ensures nothing gets missed along the way. Scheduling doesn’t only simplify family caregiving. It also gives caregivers space for flexibility. If they plot tasks beforehand, they’re able to see where they can insert leisurely activities.

For instance, caregivers can follow strictly plotted meal times to ensure patients are well-nourished. But, at the same time, incorporate within the day a “free time” where they’re allowed to do something outside the necessities, something they want to do. It’s a surefire way to get needs met and cater to the patients’ wants without disrupting their routines.

3. Adapting Routines to Changing Needs

Caregivers must be flexible. While patients have needs that should be addressed regularly, they will also develop and discover new ones along the way. With this, caregivers must learn to recognize signs when their established routines need to be updated.

As the condition evolves, the caregiving plan must also evolve alongside it. This is why it’s essential to organize schedules long-term. So when new needs arise, the already set schedule and routine will simplify family caregiving. The caregiver doesn’t need to draft new schedules but rather only adjust the existing ones to cater to the changing needs.

Changes are expected. But it’s easier to accommodate them when the caregiver already has a core routine established. This ensures no disruption to what the patient has already become accustomed to.

Routine Makes Things Easier, But Communication Remains Crucial

While establishing a routine will simplify family caregiving, it’s still essential that caregivers maintain constant communication with their patients. A routine doesn’t have to be daily or ongoing. It should still accommodate changes, preferences, and emergencies. This is why it’s essential that caregivers must first consider their patients’ wants and needs before everything else.

The abovementioned tips make establishing routines easier. Every caregiver must consider these things when it comes to building and maintaining responsibilities.

A well-planned yet flexible routine benefits not only the patient but also the caregiver. This also helps ascertain that the ailing member is well cared for. Assessing and organizing a routine will also ensure that everyone’s preferences are considered, establishing a healthier condition within the family. Without a doubt, the above tips are key to simplify family caregiving. They should be something worth executing when the responsibility arises.

However, these are only the tips that family caregivers may need during their service. More are found in Eleanor Gaccetta’s work One Caregiver’s Journey, available on the author’s website and Amazon. Get a copy and better provide care for your family now!