Dementia Caregiving Resources to Make Your Job EasierAn excerpt from our ebook
“Dementia Caregiving Priorities”
A PlannerYour brain can only hold so much! Having one notebook or folder where you keep a calendar, a to do list, a grocery list, menu ideas, notes for the doctor and the pharmacy, copies of the Power of Attorney documents, a copy of a list of medications your loved one takes, and anything else that you may need to know or have available in any given situation can relieve a lot of stress. Using a planner will help you to organize your time, help you to remember details, and help you to be ready for unplanned slots of down time. When you find yourself with a free moment just flip open your planner to your to do list and find a task you can knock out in five or ten minutes. This resource can save you much time and anxiety if you actually use it. Don’t stress about having it “just right.” If you purchase a preprinted planner use the forms that will benefit you, discard the ones that don’t, and don’t be afraid to change a form to meet your needs. This is your life. You are the one that needs to have a tool that will work for you. A List of Contact InformationThere were so many times while caring for Mom that we needed her doctor’s number, or the bank’s number or a friend’s number. We would have to take the time to look it up, go to where we had it stored, or call someone who had it. And sometimes we needed it NOW!Having a central location where all of this information was stored would have been so helpful. When compiling a list like this include contact name, phone numbers, cell phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, fax numbers, account numbers, directions, and any other relevant information for that contact. Don’t rely on keeping this list only on your cell phone or only on your computer. Make a hard copy of it. Cell phones get lost and computers crash. Losing all of this information would be worse than not compiling it in the first place. While you are making this list ask your loved one and other friends and family members about the contact information for old friends and family members that your loved one hasn’t seen in a while. We didn’t have this information and when my Mom passed away there were people we forgot to contact because we hadn’t thought of them ahead of time. Don’t let that happen to you. Here is a suggested list of who you may want to include:
Medication ListOur Mom took a lot of medicine! If we'd had to keep track of it all without a written list we would have either given her the wrong dosages or spent all our time reading pill bottles.We solved this problem by making a list of the name of the medication, its brand name, the dosage taken, the amount of pills taken, and the time of day she took that medication. With this list we could see at a glance what she needed to take and when she needed to take it. We could have also added whether or not the medication needed to be taken with food. We also kept a copy of this list to give to each doctor she saw and to give to the emergency room staff when we went there. This made it so much easier than it would have been to have handed them a bag of pills or needing to write all that information down again and again. SimplifyingDecluttering—removing unneeded belongings from my (Paula’s) home and from Mom’s home, and unneeded obligations from our schedules freed up more time to concentrate on the important aspects of caregiving.It is easier to care for a dementia patient in a simple environment. Having a lot of stuff around everywhere can be very distracting and can possibly present health and safety issues. Spend some time going through your belongings and your loved one’s belongings and giving away, selling or, donating those items that you no longer need, use, and love. Be sure, though, that you don’t get rid of real “treasures,” those things that hold true sentimental or historical value for you or your family members. It may also be helpful, ifpossible, to see if your loved one has a list included as part her will that designates certain items for certain people. You wouldn’t want to donate the doll your niece has wanted for10 years. Scheduled HouseworkMonday is cleaning day, Tuesday is baking day, and Wednesday is . . . Having a set day for each major set of tasks can make life so much easier. Knowing that you run all your errands on Thursday can allow you to arrange for someone to stay with your care recipient every week on that day. It will also give you a certain day on which you schedule all doctor appointments.Of course, sometimes life interrupts our well-planned schedules. Don’t get stressed if you don’t get any baking done on Tuesday. Compromise by buying store bought goodies instead. Schedules can save you a lot of time and help you to keep the housework under control, but don’t become a slave to your schedule. Dementia patients sometimes have bad days. If taking a nap is more valuable to you right now than mopping the kitchen floor then let the floor wait. Remember your priorities.
Once a Month Cooking (OAMC)I know that name sounds overwhelming and perhaps for a dementia caregiver going through the entire process of cooking enough meals to last an entire month might be too huge of a task. But cooking a double batch of spaghetti sauce or a making two batches of cookies and freezing the second batch for later isn’t so hard.There are several books on the subject of large batch cooking. Mega Cooking by Jill Bond and Once a Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg are two we recommend. You don’t have to follow the plan to cook a huge batch of food all at oncein order to benefit from them. If you have friends who offer to help you suggest that they prepare some freezable meals for your family. Having a batch of chili and some cornbread muffins in the freezer to pull out, defrost, and heat up sure makes those difficult days easier. A List of Supplies to Have on HandThere are some things you just don’t want to run out of—toilet paper, for example. Keep a list of all of those items and check it every week or so to be sure that you have everything you need.Add items to you grocery shopping list as you start to run low and replenish your supply on your next grocery shopping trip. Or, better yet, stock up on items every month so that you have plenty on hand and you won’t run out. Here is a list of what we consider to be essentials. Add to it the items that you need or delete the items that you don’t need. When a Friend Offers to Help ListWhen caring for a loved one with dementia every offer of help is a treasure. How great it will be when a friend offers to help you and you are able to quickly make a few suggestions of how they can help.This list can contain very simple, quick jobs all the way to very time-consuming tasks. You could even divide them by category: food, errands, caregiving, etc. Digital Voice RecorderWe wish we’d had one of these handy gadgets while we were caring for our Mom. It has so many uses!You can use it to record your grocery list, your to do list, to record notes to yourself, and instructions from the Dr., to entertain children while you wait, to record songs for your loved one to listen to, and on and on and on . . . Grab and Go BagOne thing I (Paula) did a lot of while caring for my Mom was go—to the Doctor’s office, to the pharmacy, to the emergency room, to the wound clinic, to the lab, to. . . I did so much going I felt like I should have just carried my house on my back.That wasn’t a practical solution, of course, so I made my Grab & Go Bag. This was a bag I kept packed and could just grab and run out the door. I didn’t have to think about what I would need or worry about forgetting something. I had it all right there everytime. These resources are just some of the practical things we found to help make the job of caregiving for out Mom easier, more enjoyable, and less stressful. We hope you find some solutions to some of your needs on this page. Get a FREE copy of our ebookDementia Caregiving Priorities: Making Life Easier for the Dementia Patient and the Dementia Caregiver when you subscribe to our FREE e-zine!
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