Caregiver Hints

I’m a pretty regular Google user. I have a Gmail account, although it’s more of a backup than my primary email account. Once Google swallowed up Blogger, they got me there too. I also used Google Calendar for work for a while. So, I frequently browse over to Google’s Product and Lab pages to see what else they have cooking.

A few months ago I ran across one of their latest experiments, Google Health.

In their own words…

“Google Health allows you to store and manage all of your health information in one central place. And it’s completely free. All you need to get started is a Google username and password.”

“Google believes that you own your medical records and should have easy access to them. The way we see it, it’s your information; why shouldn’t you control it?”

• Keep your doctors up-to-date
• Stop filling out the same paperwork every time you see a new doctor
• Avoid getting the same lab tests done over and over again because your doctor cannot get copies of your latest results
• Don’t lose your medical records because of a move, change in jobs or health insurance

The service is still in beta, meaning it is still in early stages of development, as most Google services are (even GMail is still listed in beta), but seems to be a good start. Keep this in mind if you are considering using it on a daily basis.

It would be difficult to cover the service in it’s entirety in this article, especially since it appears that Google is constantly adding new features to it. The most recent includes the ability to link your Google Health account to other services such as pharmacies, so that you can track additional health info from your Google Health pages. Currently, the list of participating companies is small, but includes the likes of Walgreens, Longs Drug Store, and Quest Diagnostics.

As it stands now, I’m not sure how useful it would be to the individual user wishing to track their health info. I do believe it is the ideal application for managing health data for individuals that have multiple caregivers or family members who may need access to the same information such as lists of medications or doctor appointments.

I look forward to seeing how this service develops. I have not yet looked into the security issues of maintaining health info on Google Health, but I see it as a viable tool for caregivers to help manage the frequently overwhelming mass of data needed to care for an individual.

While riding the bus to downtown San Fran, I saw a car with a logo and and a URL about Senior moving services, so I looked it up when I got home. Turns out, easyMove, LLC. is a moving service catering to the needs of older people and the disabled who address the specific needs of these groups, especially the planning and management of the move. Knowing about these folks would have greatly helped me since I had to move my Mother no less than 3 times within the city.

According to their site, they serve Contra Costa County, the San Francisco East Bay Area, and Northern California.

If you have move needs, I’d encourage you to check them out, and please report back on your experience. I’d love to report back on how these folks compare to other moving services.

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

In a previous post I mentioned the importance of recording details such a doctors’ contact info, medications, insurance information, among other data in a notebook that could be referenced. If you are doing a lot of the communication such as bill paying and arranging appointments, it can be really helpful to keep ongoing details about who you talked to and what happened, or what was said. This was incredibly important when I was taking care of my Mom’s finances, appointments, and assets. If I had not documented these interactions and discussions, I would have easily lost track of who said what, and whether I was waiting for additional information. I think the most trouble I had was with bills. Since I would frequently have to get people to resubmit charges to Medicare or insurance, or call the insurance companies to see what was happening, I would occasionally loose track of what bills I should be paying, and which were waiting for resubmission. The problem is that the accounting departments just keep sending invoices regardless of whether they are waiting for payment from elsewhere. Unless you take notes and stay on top of it, it is really hard to be sure what you really owe, and to whom. Naturally, you are entitled to get a refund if you AND the insurance company pay for the same thing, but that can get even messier.

The simplest way to take notes is just to use a small notebook. I preferred a size around 5 in. by 8 in. Small enough to easy pack or carry, but big enough to hold a lot of quick notes. This was also good for taking notes at the doctor’s office when I went with my Mother. Since my Mom would have trouble remembering the details of her doctor visits, it was best for me to take the time to go with her and find out from the doctor what was going on. Further discussion of this will be carried over into another posting.

In addition to the notebook, I used a computer program to track bill payments and phone calls. Sometimes I would transcribe information form the notebook into the program for later reference. Since I use a Macintosh computer, i used the program Circus Ponies Notebook. This program is great because it allows to to enter and import all kinds of data, create checklists, and best of all it automatically creates a set of index pages for your information for quick look-up. I am searching for a similar program that runs on Windows to recommend to PC users. When I do I’ll update this post. It has lots of other nice features which you can read about on their website. I am hoping to create a Notebook template to use with the program that will help get you started organizing your data. It will be available for download sometime in the future.

I ran across the website http://ddtp.org/ which provides a number of services to help disabled persons communicate over the telephone.

This includes

I hope to review the site in more detail and summarize some of the info in subsequent posts so stay tuned.