Being a caregiver can be quite a full-time job to undertake. There is a lot to keep track of and manage on a daily basis with a loved one can that make your life very difficult, with emotions and stress making the important role even more challenging.
Fortunately, there are many more useful tools, websites, and applications that exist now that were not available years ago that help people ease the stress of caregiving. These resources below can help make caregiving a bit easier and guide you toward being an efficient and balanced caregiver while taking care of yourself as well.
Staying Organized
Becoming a caregiver is a big role to take on, and keeping yourself organized is not always easy. A good app to help with this is Caring Village.
- Caring Village is built for caregivers because it helps with so many areas of concern. It allows you to create a care team with family members and coordinate help with errands, transportation and food. The app also has preparedness checklists, secure in-app messaging and a wellness journal. Additionally, it stores health documents and tracks medications as well.
Medical Assistance
Being a caregiver, it is important that you are able to help when your loved one is in pain, facing an injury or in an emergency. An excellent app that can help with this is First Aid: American Red Cross.
- First Aid is just like it sounds. The app gives expert advice for all types emergencies or injuries with step-by-step instructions and helpful videos. It also has a locator to help determine the nearest hospital in case of emergency. Plus, you can easily call 911 at any time within the app if necessary.
Medications
When taking care of a loved one that is ill, it is obviously important to stay on top of medications and make sure your loved one isn’t misusing them. Two good apps to help with this are Illuminate Health: Med Guide and Medisafe.
- Med Guide helps to simplify medication management and has several safety features that help prevent accidental misuse or interactions. The app has clinical support that checks for drug interactions, prescription duplication and accuracy. The app also has a side effect tracker, wellness routines and even connects with a care network.
- Medisafe is a straightforward medication management app with an organizer that gives refill reminders and tracks medication expiration dates. The app also generates progress reports, gives medication tips and finds discounted prescription offers (via GoodRx). Medisafe allows you to add family members to check in and send reminders as well.
Resourceful Websites
In addition to these helpful apps, there are a variety of supportive websites that outline extensive insights on caregiving. Below are three picks worth checking out to help ease the fluctuating challenges of being a caregiver:
1. Leeza’s Care Connection – This website has a full section designated to just caregiving tips. It gives great advice under Your Caregiver Toolbox, along with good information under Health & Medical Tips and Safety Tips. It also goes into depth about Medicare and Medicaid, caring for a veteran and building a family care network. Additionally, they have a comprehensive caregiver FAQ section.
2. Family Caregiver Alliance – The Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA) was actually the first organization in the United States to advocate for and support family and friend caregivers. This website has a wide selection of resources on medical topics, along with basic caregiving guides for beginners. The FCA also offers support groups, events, classes and even a personalized tool called CareNav,™ a free dashboard loaded with personalized information that matches your unique caregiving needs.
3. Caring.com – This website is like an encyclopedia for caregivers that covers many caregiver topics. It also talks the best medical alert systems of 2022, has a full guide to Medicare benefits and highlights the very important issue of caregiver burnout. It’s a serious concern for many family members and caregivers, and the site offers great advice about how to handle the stress and burnout that comes with the job.
There are plenty of other apps, tools and websites available to help with making caregiving easier to manage, but these are just a few examples of how technology and the internet can contribute to making caregiving a more pleasant, prepared experience.
If the resources above don’t work well for you and your needs, check out some of these lists below to review other options and find the best online tools and apps for you and your family:
WhereYouLiveMatters
AARP
Caring.com
Seniorly.com
These websites, apps, tools and resources were designed to alleviate the difficulties of everyone’s caregiving journey. Consider these apps and websites as additional helpful resources to support you as you become the best caregiver you can be.
(All apps mentioned are available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store)