Caregiver Hints

A friend recently brought this service to my attention. CaringBridge is a non-profit web site/service that offers free tools for creating a website to keep family and friends informed about loved ones who are ill.

In their own words…

“CaringBridge® is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit web service that connects family and friends during a critical illness, treatment or recovery.

A CaringBridge site is personal, private and available 24/7. It helps ease the burden of keeping family and friends informed. Patients and caregivers draw strength from loved ones’ messages of support.”

Friends and family can go to the site and leave messages and wishes, while the creators of the page can post details and progress about the loved one’s condition and progress.

While the services are free, donations are requested to help fund the site. This seems like a great service, and from what I can tell, is easy enough for anyone to use.

Tags: websites, nonprofit, free, donation, service, support, caregivers

I hope to be adding a new feature to the web site…podcasts! Since I am an avid podcast listener myself, it occurred to me that having the option to listen to articles in the car, or on the bus on the way to work might be really useful for busy people. If you are a caregiver, you are definitely busy. Personally, podcasts are the only way I can keep up with news.

So, as soon as I can work out some of the bugs (I’ve never done a podcast before), look for a link on the site to start downloading to your iPod.

One lesson I learned the hard way, was that you need to stay up to date with all the official mail you get. Once you start managing the funds, insurance, and health care of someone, you can expect your inflow of mail to at least quadruple, not counting the junk mail you will receive.

What I found out is that the envelopes that contain checks for overpayments or refunds from insurance, look exactly like the ones that contain the standard statement of services. So, while you may be tempted to let some of these go unopened, you are much better off opening everything that you receive right away, and taking a quick glance at it to confirm what it is. Then if you have to put off dealing with it, at least you will know where you stand.

Tags: organization, mail, insurance