The Plan of Care

Why do you need to plan for the progression of dementia? Well dementia's progressive disease. So this means that the need for care will change as the disease changes. And so we want to give you an inside look at a tool that we use in our professional services. It's called a plan of care. So what is the plan of care? The plan of care is a set of documents that will give a caregiver immediate access to all facets of a loved one's life. And why create a plan of care? Creating and following a set plan creates a framework for care that allows for the family member to receive the proper care with no gaps and no holes because inconsistent care can lead to problems and emergencies. I'm going to run through a few scenarios where inconsistent care planning causes problems.

Scenario one is Norma. Now nobody has been assigned regular grocery shopping from Mom. We're gonna call her Norma. Norma cannot go to the grocery store by herself, so someone in the family decides to buy her microwave ready to eat TV dinners. Now she can figure out the microwave but sometimes forgets to eat and so she starts to become malnourished. And if a plan of care were in place Norma's family would know who was in charge of making sure she's eating well and staying healthy.

Scenario two is Aunt Violent. Aunt Violet has Alzheimer's and needs more care than her family realizes. And Violet spends the day in front of the TV because there's no plan to get her out of the house or engage her brain. Consequently her symptoms of the decline progressed more rapidly. And if a plan of care was in place Aunt Violet would be getting out with family and friends.

Scenario number three is dad. Like all dads he's stubborn and claims he can manage his medications all by himself. Little does the family know that at times he forgets to take his morning medications. And when he remembers to take his evening medications he sees the morning ones there and decided to take them both. Family members start to notice some odd behaviors but don't realize they are related to the mis medication. And if the plan of care had been in place caregivers would know to monitor his medications.

So how do we organize and plan? Well at Thoughtfulcare, our first step in providing our care is to go to the client's home, assess the living situation, and create our plan of care. Our professional assessment is much more comprehensive because its intent is to manage the care of the client that is hired us. But you can create a simple plan of care at home. And when the time comes for more in-home care. This plan will ease transition for the professional care provider.

Thoughtful health care offers 24 hour in-home care tailored to your loved one's needs. We've been serving Kansas City and the surrounding areas since 1999. Now back to the podcast.

So let's get started. Bring the family together and figure out roles for each of them. Now some people are more suited for organization and some are better at following directions. Recognize those roles. The plan of care can be created in a Word document or a shared online document that all family members should have access to. Furthermore put the plan in a notebook in the home for all caregivers to read. But be sensitive to the person with dementia's image and share the plan responsibly. So step one is identify your challenges and issues. Medication management, dietary issues, safety in the home, hygiene, transportation, and activities. The plan of care assures that these issues are being addressed every day. So who's giving care for which issue and when.

Step two create and use behavior logs. Because keeping track of behaviors helps identify the triggers. And when you make notes of behavior patterns you can begin to recognize when outbursts or confusion could occur. For example your behavior log might show that every day around 4:00 o'clock there is a behavior that just so happens to coincide with the neighbors dai