This post is sponsored by Depend® Brand. All opinions and statements are my own.
When I first became a primary caregiver for my mom, I was clueless. After years of being a caregiver and coaching other caregivers, I’ve learned many little things that have helped make the care journey smoother.
Every November we recognize caregivers during National Family Caregivers Month. My gift to my fellow caregivers this month is a list of 17 caregiving hacks. My hope is that even just one of these will work for you!
I’ve organized these 17 caregiving hacks into six categories:
- Medicine & Comfort
- Support
- Self-Care
- Shopping
- Organization
- Companionship
Medicine & Comfort Hacks
- Mom used to argue with us when she needed a breathing treatment. She would typically start out complying but as soon as we turned our backs, she’d remove her mask. What ended up working was to set a timer on her iPad for 10 minutes. This practice eliminated the debate about the process. When the timer went off, mom removed her mask after receiving the full dose of medication.
- Keep a journal with your care recipient. The caregiving days tend to run together. Making notes of treatments, bowel movements, and overall mood changes helps facilitate the conversations with other family members and the health care professionals. It’s also a written diary of everything you have been through! Maybe you want to write a blog or a book someday.
Support Hacks
- Some situations are easier to discuss with perfect strangers! Find a virtual support group that gets it. One caregiving area that was my least favorite was dealing with mom’s incontinence. The Incontinence Community on Facebook is a great resource.
- I have learned so much about health, starting a business, and caregiving from podcasts! Search for your preferred topic in your favorite platform and you get the just in time training you were seeking from a variety of podcasts. Check out my list of favorite caregiving podcasts.
- I always encourage friends and family to hold onto special little tokens that remind them of loved ones so their memory lives on forever. One of the treasures I have are old voicemails from each of my parents. I enjoy hearing their voice when my heart aches for them. Here’s a video prayer my mom shared that she wanted all her eleven grandchildren to remember:
Self-Care Hacks
- Always be ready to seize an unexpected self-care opportunity. Prepare a self-care tote so you have what you need during those times when you have a few minutes between meetings or activities. Some ideas for your tote: a healthy snack, nail trimmer, paperback novel, or puzzle book.
- Buy yourself a floral bouquet every so often. Shower yourself with some self-love and affirmation. Your fresh flowers will brighten up your space and the wonderful aroma infuses peace.
Shopping Hacks
- Some caregiving products can be expensive and you want to avoid buying a large quantity in case it will not work. In The Caregivers Hub by Depend®, you can request samples to try a product out and then obtain coupons to save once you’ve found what works. The Caregivers Hub also shares tips on how to use your Flexible Savings Account for these over-the-counter necessities.
- Limit your trips to the store, and your daily decision making, by creating a weekly meal plan. Your meal plan doesn’t have to be sophisticated, just scratch it out on a piece of paper and then ask someone to do the shopping for you or put your order in online. Give yourself a night or two off from cooking by indicating which nights you plan to consume leftovers or order take out.
Organization Hacks
- Create a binder or accordion system for all your important financial and legal docs.
- Download a password app, like Keeper, to not only store username and passwords but also to secure images of insurance cards, social security card, and other important details you don’t want easily accessible.
- Be prepared for caregiving challenges that may pop up at any time. Reduce potential challenges by having cash in your wallet, smartphone and laptop chargers with you, and important documents in the cloud where you can access them.
Companionship Hacks
- To minimize interruptions in your day, call your parents or family members seeking updates when it’s a good time for you. I know good times for me were during my commute time, while taking a walk, or driving to an appointment.
- As mobility or cognitive abilities change, consider pulling out the games and activities you loved as a child like Connect Four, Play Doh, Uno, dominos, crayons, and stuffed animals. Don’t worry about keeping to all the rules of play. Just have fun!
- When mom’s eyesight started to decline, we started to read to her. A favorite pastime from childhood, just with reversed roles. We would read news, novels, and church bulletins.
- Not sure what to talk about with your care recipient anymore? Ask for the stories. If you need ideas for some questions to ask – reference the Just for You: a Daily Self-Care Journal.
- Collaborate with family members to create a playlist of songs loved by your care recipient. I know getting to mom’s doctor’s appointments was always a hectic process. Everything takes longer than you think it will and you want to respect the doctor’s time by being on time. I would crank up the 50’s station in the car as soon as we got in and immediately the situation would diffuse. Music can help diffuse a difficult situation and keep things calmer. Speaking of playlists, here’s a Caregiver Anthem playlist I created for you!
I continually strive to have the Happy Healthy Caregiver blog and podcast focus on pragmatic ways to help you infuse self-care into your life and to create systems and ways to make caregiving easier and offer you peace of mind. I don’t want you to miss an event, tip, or special offer so join the Happy Healthy Caregiver email list to remain plugged in.
Lastly, it’s National Family Caregivers Month! Take a moment to do an annual self-review on your role. What do you like and dislike about it? Express gratitude for what is working and what you like about the role. For the areas that need some work, what is one specific action (or hack) you could implement to make things run a bit smoother?
