Take Action - 3 Amazingly Simple Ways to Get the Most Out of Every Doctor Appointment

Primary caregivers are typically the calendar keeper.  That means keeping track of all manner of medical appointments, such as checkups, dental visits, annual mole checks, physical therapy sessions and more.  Get organized – and keep your Care Team looped in – by using Care3 to schedule, coordinate and remember appointments for your loved one.  Unlike a wall calendar, it can be consulted on the go by you and your care team, plus it comes with built-in reminders and a recording feature. An example helps to illustrate things.

Let’s suppose you’re the primary caregiver for your 24-year-old son Dylan, who has a congenital disorder that is causing his kidneys to fail.  He is currently in need of a transplant and living back at home.  Many family members and close friends want to know how Dylan is doing and what his doctors are saying.  By inviting those who care about Dylan to be part of your Care3 Care Team, you can keep everyone up-to-date using one centralized platform versus trying to communicate with everyone individually, which can be time-consuming and draining.

For example, Dylan has a transplant evaluation at a regional hospital next week.

1. Easily Notify your entire Care Team of the Appointment

You’d like to notify the care team that this long-awaited appointment has finally been scheduled, and you’d also like to let them know what you learn during the appointment. With Care3, both tasks are a cinch. Start by logging into Care3 and tapping the Action Message icon in your Care Team Conversation. You will then be prompted to enter all the pertinent details – such as the date, time and location.

2. Share the Goal of the Appointment with your Care Team

In the “Notes” section, you can note the fact that this visit is the critical first step in Dylan qualifying for a kidney transplant.  Then, you can choose to make the appointment visible to everyone on the team or just the team members you select.  (You can also make appointments visible only to you if desired.)

3. Record the Doctor's Instructions and Share with your Care Team

Flash forward to the day of Dylan’s transplant evaluation.  If you have downloaded Care3 onto your iPhone, you can use it to record the doctor’s comments and instructions during the appointment.  Start by asking the physician if it’s okay to record him or her.  After you’ve gotten permission and logged onto Care3, click the paper clip icon at the bottom left in your Care Team conversation.  Then tap the microphone icon to bring up the recorder. Then just tap the red square to start recording.  Now you can relax and listen to the doctor carefully without having to worry about jotting down notes.  Everything will be captured.  As an added benefit, you automatically share the recording with your care team so that they can hear what the doctor said for themselves almost in real-time.

With Care3 Nothing is lost in translation, and everyone’s up to speed. Download now!

#Care3How2 - Party Time! Get Friends to Visit Your Loved One in an Instant

Care3 helps you organize your caregiving activities and share them with family and friends who want to help. In recent posts, we’ve discussed how you can use Care3 to coordinate a ride in just one tap using our exclusive Action Messages. Today we’re going to look at how Care3 can help you easily and quickly set up social visits, which can combat loneliness, isolation and depression as well as provide some downtime for you as a caregiver.

Recommended Actions • Give a Ride • Visit Your Loved One • Add Appointment • Pick Up Medicine • Get Answers • Buy Something • Do Something

Imagine that your elderly mother, who’s known as Nana, lives with you and your family. You’ve noticed that she’s been a bit down lately. She’s mentioned several times that she has not heard from her siblings or old friends in some time. Even though Nana tires easily, you’ve seen how a short social visit can really lift her spirits. So you decide to arrange a get together for Nana next weekend. As an added benefit, you’ll be able to slip out during the visit to run some errands and enjoy a little personal time. Sounds like a win-win, no? Plus, with Care3, you know you can set up a visit in seconds.

Start by logging on to Care3 and tapping the Action Message icon in your Care Team conversation. You will then be prompted to enter all the details that folks need to know – such as the date, time and location. Add any other important information in the “Notes” section, such as the fact that the visit will be capped at two hours to keep Nana from getting overtired. Then, instead of sending this Action Message to everyone on the team, you may choose in this instance to select just Nana’s area siblings, old friends and former neighbors so that it’s a more intimate gathering of the people she’s been missing. Keep tabs on your iPhone as one or more people accept the Action and your idea quickly turns into a reality.

See how Action Messages can streamline your efforts? Next up on the blog, we’ll examine how you can use Care3 to track appointments.

#Care3How2 - Requesting a Ride is Easy

Welcome to our series called #Care3How2! In this series we show you how to do some of the most common care activities on Care3 and why our care-sharing app is far more efficient than email or other mobile apps.

Are you a caregiver who’s trying to do it all? Or a remote family member who’d like to do more – from either near or far? At Care3, we’ve learned that many caregivers would love to have some assistance, but they’re simply too busy and overwhelmed to call around and see who might be able to pitch in. On the flip side, we’ve found that family or friends are often ready and willing to help out, but in many cases, they just don’t know how.

This is where Care3 comes in. By assembling a Care Team that’s connected via our messaging app, Care3 users are able to create Action Messages for help that reaches all team members. Compared to multiple phone calls and emails, a Care3 Action Message is a highly efficient way to put the word out and find out quickly who can lend a hand. Team members can also text thank yous just like a normal text message. Everyone’s involved and supporting each other, whether or not they can help with that particular task.

Recommended Actions • Give a Ride • Visit Your Loved One • Add Appointment • Pick Up Medicine • Get Answers • Buy Something • Do Something

So let’s take a look at exactly how Care3 works – in this case, getting a ride for your loved one (or giving it!). Imagine you are a caregiver for your aging father, who lives with you in your home. Your father, who suffered a stroke and can no longer drive, needs a ride to an occupational therapy (OT) appointment on Thursday. The problem is, it’s at the same time as a conference with your daughter’s third grade teacher, and neither appointment can be easily rescheduled. While this would be a stressful problem if you have little to no assistance, it’s easily solved when you have a Care3 Care Team behind you.

Start by logging on to Care3 and tapping the Action Message icon in your Care Team conversation. You will then be prompted to enter all the details that your team members need to know to determine whether they can help – such as the date, time, location, and length of the OT appointment.

Here's where it's super simple. See that check box labeled "Ride Needed"? Just tap that box to add the check and everyone knows that your father needs a ride to the appointment. Add any other important information in the “Notes” section and select whether you want this message to go to everyone or not. (You can also send it to only selected individuals.) Fire off your clear, specific Action Message and receive a notification minutes later that your cousin Robbie can give your father a ride. Send a “Thanks!” message to show your gratitude and smile as you see that other team members are sending their thanks to Robbie as well. It feels good to work together!

Oh, and don't forget to record the OT instructions, either so everyone knows how to help your father, too!

Getting a better sense of how Care3 works? It's time to take action. Download Care3 now!

Caregiving - Love in Action

Caregiving is not a burden. We believe that caring for someone you love is a love in action. The stress most people associate with caring for a parent advancing in age or a special needs child comes from the uncertainty surrounding changing circumstances, not from the responsibilities of caregiving. In fact, we find that people want to be more involved but are limited often by distance, time, money, or other factors. This inability to contribute leaves many relatives and close friends feeling guilty and helpless. But what if pitching in to help the ones we love was easier? What if we could remove the obstacles time and distance place on our ability to lend a hand or show our support? What if you could make caregiving more social? That day has come.

It's time to change the perception of caregiving. It's time to take action! And Care3 will help you act.

Care3 uses Action Messages to share care tasks with supportive family and friends in your messaging conversation.

Here are some actions to get you started thinking. Each action can be completed by you, or you can get others to help. Trust that others around you want to take action also! Don't take it all on yourself. Share in action.

Example Actions:

• Get/Give a Ride • Visit Your Loved One • Set Appointment • Pick Up Medicine • Research Conditions • Buy Groceries • Help with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)

It's time for some Action. It's time for Care3. Download now on the Apple App Store!

The New Normal: Caregivers as Leaders

When a loved one is suddenly struck ill or has a catastrophic event, it changes the world--and without our permission. We are stunned into paralysis—shocked into disbelief—and even shamed into silence. Becoming a caregiver thrusts you into a leadership position. People look to you for guidance, updates, and strength even though you feel the same feelings they do. Leaders are supposed to project an air of invincibility, right? Consider this excerpt from Nelson Mandela’s Leadership Lessons:

Show courage: Mandela was often afraid for his own safety and even his life. Yet, he never showed fear to either his compatriots or his adversaries, saying that a leader “must put up a bold front.”

One of the greatest leaders in world history recommends that we show no fear. A chink in the “bold front” armor may signal weakness, or worse yet, fear and doubt in whether the mission can succeed. So we keep quiet. Play it close to the vest. We never let our family or friends see us sweat.

The problem with that approach is that inevitably when others see that we are, in fact, human, it is such an anomaly that our family and friends think that the sky is falling. Showing vulnerability from time to time, sharing the experience with close family and friends, and rising above it can add to a perception of strength rather than take from it--and result in better health for your loved one.

When our loved ones get sick and need our help to recover or even live comfortably day-to-day, it’s important to talk about the challenges with people you trust—while also letting those around you know that everything isn’t perfect. This includes family members. You will need their help if you want to balance the responsibilities of caring for a loved one and maintaining the life you had already created for yourself.

Do what you do at work. Get your team (a care team) together, set a goal, make a plan, and lead. But talk openly about the challenges with trusted friends and family. Success in this mission means a healthy loved one and a strong, supportive family.

Don’t you want that anyway?

Give Me My Care Instructions on My Mobile Phone!

It's 2016. We are in the age of smartphones and information overload. Yet, for the most important instructions we need, those for caring for loved ones, we are still receiving them ON PAPER!  

See if this sounds familiar....

You’re desperate to go home and the discharge nurse is giving you care instructions verbally, then on paper.

At home a few hours later, where are those instructions again? (If you find them) Oh here they are—but what do ostomy, commode, and ambulate mean? Wait, I can’t even do this without spending a ton of money.

Loss, jargon, and hidden costs lead to poor outcomes for your loved ones and avoidable hospital readmissions.

There are 99 reasons we can't be perfect as caregivers, but how we get the instructions CAN’T be one.

Introducing Care3!

Care3 takes your paper care instructions and delivers them as text messages to your smartphone to be shared among family and friends. That's why Care3 has been called the world's first "care-sharing" app.

Here's how Care3 works:

1. Email us a picture or scan (pdf) of your paper care instructions.
2. Care3 breaks down the instructions into individual steps sequenced by how often each task needs to be done and by when (all instructions are reviewed by a registered nurse).
3. You will receive an invitation via email to download the Care3 app from the App Store. Download and sign up. It's FREE!
4. Like magic, your care instructions become a Conversation and tasks begin to appear as text messages in the order when they need to be completed!
5. We will also email you a pdf of your itemized care instructions so you have a "paper version" that you can use to see an overview of all care to be delivered. (view sample)

It's high time we had instructions given in a way that's convenient for US. Plain language. Step-by-step. Mobile.

This is the future of care outside of the hospital. This is Care3.

FREE (for a limited time)!

Email us your paper care instructions now! This service is FREE, but only for a limited time. Tap below to send us your instructions.

Break the Cycle of ER Visits and Hospitalizations for Your Loved One

In one year my mother was in the hospital 12 times.

One time a month.

And that wasn’t the biggest year. She had COPD, CHF (chronic heart failure) and was a cancer survivor.

My wife and I tried everything to keep her out of the hospital. And each time it was the same.

Within a few weeks, she’d end up back in the hospital.

While there she’d get her vitals under control because of the round-the-clock attention. Everything would be ok—and she’d be discharged.

And within two weeks, no matter what we did, we just couldn’t keep her right and she’d end up in the hospital again.

That cycle went on for a year, year and a half. Sometimes twice a month in the hospital over the course of 2.5 years she’d be admitted or at least end up in the Emergency Room.

And finally, we realized something...

Finally—after that year when she was in the hospital 12 times—we realized we were doing things wrong.

We recognized what we needed as a family. Too much was falling on one person’s shoulders at a time. Care would fall on me for a time. When I wasn’t available, it was all on my wife.

Then we tried something new...

All that care that had to be delivered, all of those tasks, needed to be shared among more than one person at a time. We needed a group of people in the family working all at the same time.

One person didn’t have to take it all on.

Then we had to organize those tasks so that we made sure they got delivered at the right time. That was no small feat in itself. What we were able to do is get all those tasks organized into a list, know when each had to happen and then share those tasks with family and friends so others could take those on.

That’s how we broke the cycle.

That’s how we got more care and better care for mom so that she could feel better, longer.

What happened? We nursed her back to health.

Remember, she was living with us for 2.5 years. And after 6 months of not being in the hospital she was able to go home and live by herself independently.

Sure, we had people looking in on her. But living at home restored everything. Her health. Her independence. Her dignity.

That’s what we built Care3 to do.

It helps you do the 3 things that together we call “care-sharing” to keep your loved one out of the hospital.

1. Care3 helps you create a care team of supportive family and friends
2. Care3 creates a group care conversation automatically when you create your care team so communication is easy and efficient for everyone
3. Care3 helps you enter and share all care tasks in a sequenced list so everyone on the care team can contribute by accepting a task 

 

That’s the way to break the cycle. That’s the way to keep our loved ones out of the hospital. That’s the way to get them to live at home by themselves independently.

Care3 can help.

Download the Care3 iPhone app in the App Store. It’s FREE and will help you use care-sharing to care for your loved ones as a team to help them feel better, longer.

Take care,

David S. Williams

CEO, Care3

Use Care3 LIKE A BOSS to Care for Loved Ones

Thank you for all you do caring for others! Check out the second video (<6 minutes) where our CEO, David Williams, walks you step-by-step on how to use Care3 like a BOSS to care for loved ones.

https://youtu.be/0qsIuXCyrK8

Bookmark this page so you can refer back to the video.

Questions? Comments? Email us at boss@care3.co/blog. We want to hear from you!

Finally! How to Unleash the Power of Your Smartphone for Family Caregiving

https://youtu.be/r8XxjB_GS04 Finally. It only took 100 seconds for this health technology CEO to reveal the secrets on how to unleash the power of your smartphone to care for loved ones.

He cared for his mother (cancer, COPD, and heart failure) for 10 years prior to her passing and has a son with severe autism, so he knows how hard caregiving can be.

Caregiving requires help. There's so much to do. Technology is supposed to make your life easier. You carry your smartphone everywhere you go, so why not use it to help provide better care for loved ones?

There are a few things to look out for, however. This video talks you through how to think about apps and how to avoid the pitfalls.

You're less than two minutes from better caregiving. Watch the video and use your smartphone to take care of the people you cherish the most.

Thank you for all you do!

(After watching the video, download the FREE Care3 app!)

Care-Sharing - Don't Miss Work, Don't Lose Pay

Have you had to take days off from work due to your caregiving responsibilities? Are you considering retiring early, going part-time or taking a hiatus from the workforce so that you can be more available to take care of your loved one? If so, you are far from alone.

Family caregivers – such as those caring for an elderly parent, a special needs child or a loved one facing a serious illness – are often faced with these difficult decisions when the daily demands of caregiving start to become too much. According to a major study by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, some working caregivers reported having to take a leave of absence (17 percent), shift from full-time to part-time work (10 percent), quit work entirely (6 percent), lose job benefits (5 percent), turn down a promotion (4 percent) or choose early retirement (3 percent).

What are the long-term repercussions of these missed work days? They might be more significant than you think. American businesses lose between $11 billion and $29 billion a year in reduced productivity from working caregivers, according to a recent MetLife study. And the costs for you as a caregiver are even steeper. The same study found that the lost wages/benefits for the average female caregiver – including Social Security and pension payments – totaled an estimated $324,044. For all 10 million caregivers age 50 and over who are caring for a parent, the estimated cost of lost wages/benefits came to staggering $3 trillion.

One way to help prevent missed days and decreased workforce participation is to ensure you have a backup when something happens with your loved one during the work week. How do you do that? The first step is downloading and joining Care3 and building a team of family members and close friends who care about your loved one.

We call this care-sharing.

These are the folks who you know want to help out and have expressed as much. Get them all connected via our iPhone app and discover how simple it is to get help using the simple behavior of text messages, even at the last minute. They’ll all get the message instantly, and by the sheer virtue of having multiple people on your team, it increases the chances that someone is available to pitch in.

As an example, let’s suppose your mother – who lives with you and doesn’t drive – fell down this morning. She says she’s fine, but you’re concerned that something’s wrong or that she might have broken something. Now, instead of your only option being to take a vacation/PTO day, you have the ability to put out a request for help and see if there are any team members available to take your mother to the doctor or ER. Within minutes, you get notified that your retired neighbor Millie, who is close with your family, has volunteered. Now you can relax knowing that your mother will get checked out and that you won’t have to reschedule your big presentation at work. Other team members – including your siblings and cousins – can communicate their relief and gratitude to Millie by sending “Thanks”. And, finally, Millie will feel appreciated and valued due to all those “Thanks” piling up.

Care-sharing. It’s a win-win for you, your family and friends, and your career.

Don't Let Caregiving Hold Back Your Career

You work hard. You have earned that next promotion. Suddenly, you're thrown for a loop because your mom has been diagnosed with a chronic condition. She needs your help and a lot of it. The time you would normally devote to crushing it at work is now dedicated to caring for the person who's cared for you most of your life. Now you're missing work due to caregiving responsibility and that promotion you worked so hard for is in jeopardy. This can't be happening! And yet it is--and you're not alone.

The New York Times published a great article recently highlighting how caregivers must often sacrifice their careers to care for loved ones. The data shows this is all too real, and on a massive scale. The unfortunate truth is that there's a high cost associated with caregiving that goes beyond just the direct costs of providing care and supporting quality of life needs.

Between missing work, declining job performance, and taking a leave of absence, income can fall substantially without having strong support. According to the National Family Caregiving Alliance:

• Among working caregivers caring for a family member or friend, 69% report having to rearrange their work schedule, decrease their hours or take an unpaid leave in order to meet their caregiving responsibilities.
• A reported 37% of caregivers quit their jobs or reduced their work hours to care for someone 50+ in 2007.
• Caregivers overall reported missing an average of 6.6 workdays per year. Approximately 17% of full-time workers missed 126 million workdays each year. 36% of caregivers missed 1-5 days per year while 30% reported missing 6 or more days in the past year.

What You Can Do to Protect Your Career Advancement

You want the best of both worlds. You want that promotion but you also want the time to care for mom. But how? Here are three steps you must take.

Team Up

So how do you alleviate your burden so that you can keep up at work and take proper care of your own health and career? By assembling a team of family and close friends – the ones who are always saying, “Let me know if there’s anything I can do!” – and making it incredibly easy and natural to request help or volunteer to do something. The no-doubt-bottom-line best way to avoid these pitfalls is to share your caregiving responsibilities with family and friends.

Make a Care Plan

Your mom's doctor is required to provide her (and you as a caregiver) with information (e.g., a care plan) to help her reach her optimal level of health following an appointment (or inpatient stay at a hospital). It's your job to turn that care plan into action. Most of the time the care plan is on paper so using technology to automate the tasks is a good idea.

Use Technology for Communication

There are resources and technology available to increase communication with your Care Team. Find something that works for you so you all can share the responsibility. Everything doesn't have to fall on your shoulders!

Investing your time in discovering what combination of services (and help from family and friends) can help in your situation will pay dividends--perhaps literally.

Care3 Walks to End Alzheimer's

Today, Care3 Founder and CEO David Williams participated in the #WalktoEndAlzheimers by the Orange County Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. What an amazing event! So many teams, advocates, caregivers, supporting companies and loved ones all taking action by walking as one.  

According to the Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's impacts 5.3 million Americans of all ages. Here's a shocking statistic: Only 45% of people with Alzheimer's or their caregivers report being told of their diagnosis! Compare that to 90%+ with cancer. Something has to change and Care3 will be part of it.

  

Thanks to the Orange County Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association for putting on such a fantastic event. Care3 is proud to be a Champions Club sponsor.