Introduction

Providing care for people in your life can be challenging and rewarding.

Purposes

This article covers some of the basic challenges of caring for people who are sick, aging or who have specialized healthcare needs. This article can serve as an outline for a Member Services conversation you can have with a Navigator 24/7.

Table of Contents

Causes

Injury

Injuries can happen quickly and cause rapid changes to health, mobility, independence and income. Some injuries are well understood and follow an established progression of procedures, treatments and rehabilitation while the treatment path and outcomes of other types of injuries may be less certain. It may be helpful to know how well understood this injury is and what it means for future care.

Illness

Illness can range from temporary and minor to serious and chronic. Because there is such a wide variety of illnesses, there is also a wide variety of costs, complexity and ways to improve the situation. The diagnostics process may take time so it can be helpful to develop an initial plan and then to change or refine the plan over time as more is understood.

Aging

Getting older is a natural and expected part of life so it’s a good idea for people to think about and plan for their aging. Preparation for the natural aging process can improve choices and outcomes for all involved.

Topics for Review

Doctors & Appointments

Getting involved in providing care for family members often starts by accompanying them to the doctor or providing support after a medical procedure. Many people see more than one doctor and caregiving is helped by keeping track of doctors and appointments.

Labs & Tests

Doctors often order blood tests or other procedures to help diagnose or treat different conditions. Some tests require careful planning and preparation to be accurate. Getting necessary tests at the right time with accurate results is an important part of ongoing care.

Diagnoses & Conditions

Diagnoses may be determined quickly or may develop in stages and gradually lead to more definitive diagnoses. Accurately recording and tracking diagnoses over time can be very helpful in the medical process.

Healthcare Instructions

Many doctors or other healthcare providers will give patients verbal, printed or online instructions on what to do and how to treat their illness. Recording accurate healthcare instructions and ensuring that both patients and caregivers understand them are key to effective care.

Medication Dosing & Timing

Medication management involves identifying and keeping track of prescribed medicines, dosages, schedules and precautions for each medication. And it may involve confirming medications are taken properly and refilled when necessary. Changes to brands, dosage, schedule or the introduction of new medications can have substantial impacts.

Insurance & Paperwork

Most medical care is paid for through health insurance which can make some parts of accessing healthcare more complex. It helps to understand your benefits and how you can get the most out of the coverage you have.

Home Caregivers

Identifying, interviewing, hiring and coordinating in-home care can be very challenging for many families. In-home caregiving introduces the complexities of employment, scheduling and a variety of logistical and interpersonal challenges.

Care Facilities

At times during their care, people may spend time in a hospital, a short term facility focused on rehabilitation from injury or longer term care facilities with units tailored to specific needs. The quality of care between facilities and the situations they are capable of handling can vary and the costs for some types of care can be substantial.

Finance & Money

Medical care can be very expensive even when people are in good health. The impact of expensive medications, denied insurance claims or out of pocket expenses during unexpected injury or illness can be substantial. Some situations can lead to medical or personal debt related to care.

Legal & Documents

There are some important legal concepts and documents related to caregiving. As people progress in their lives and medical experiences, they may encounter the need for a will, powers of attorney or an advanced directive, among other relevant documents. Failure to have the right documents, properly signed and authorized, can have a substantial impact on care.

What you stand to lose

Increased Costs

You or your family members could experience new costs as part of your caregiving situation, including but not limited to home healthcare assistance, medical devices and other expenses not covered by all types of insurance.

Reduced Quality of Care

Helping to provide care for someone else can be very challenging and can range from basic assistance all the way to making all medical decisions for someone unable to care for themselves. The people you are looking after may experience a reduced quality of care if you are unable to effectively track the symptoms, doctors, appointments, diagnoses, treatments and medicines.

Wasted Time & Effort

Managing or coordinating complex situations over time, such as treatment of an illness, often presents many opportunities for small problems to grow into large issues and disrupt a situation altogether.

Emotional Distress

Managing the challenges associated with caring for others can create substantial emotional distress for all involved. The challenges can be either brief and intense or chronic, lasting over longer periods of time and many involve healthcare, finance and day to day logistics.

Member Services

Noble Navigators provides guidance, direct action and ongoing support services for more than a dozen important life situations, including providing care for others. If you or someone you know needs assistance, please contact Noble Navigators 24/7 for live assistance

Behind the Scenes Information

Caring for others can be very rewarding, but also very challenging. It can create financial, emotional and healthcare challenges for those providing and receiving the care. It can be very helpful to develop a plan that balances the resources and priorities of your situation.

Key Terms
CNA

A Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) provides healthcare support services to patients and nurses in a hospital or home healthcare environment. CNAs are not themselves nurses, but assist nurses in their duties.

Home Healthcare

The term refers to medical or healthcare services that are administered in a persons home, as compared to a hospital or doctors office.

Advanced Directive

A document that a person can sign that indicates what sort of medical treatment they would authorize if they were unable to give consent. For example if a patient were to have a medical procedure but not to "wake up" from the procedure, a "Advanced Directive" may specify which types of treatments the patient would authorize and which they would not.

Power of Attorney

A legal arrangement that gives legal decision making authority to someone else for financial, healthcare or other matters described in the documents.