Most families don’t realize that a care plan isn’t something you create once and forget about. It’s more like a living document that changes as your loved one’s needs change. The difference between a plan that works and one that sits in a drawer gathering dust comes down to how well it fits your actual situation—not some generic template.
How To Assess Needs to Begin With
The first thing to do is assess what needs assistance now. This sounds easy but it’s not. Often families are in denial about how much help a loved one needs and others are overwhelmed and feel that professional intervention is necessary for everything.
Assess activities of daily living. Can Mom still cook for herself, or is she skipping lunch since “preparing meals” involves a sprawling process? Is Dad taking his medication appropriately, or do you see pills strewn about? These are more compelling than generalized assertions like “Mom needs help”.
This is the unfortunate truth: needs evolve little by little and then all at once. Someone who needed some light housekeeping last week might need bathing assistance now, after that tumble down the stairs shifted their confidence in showering alone. A proper care plan accommodates this instead of pretending needs will remain stagnant.
How To Make it Flexible
The greatest care plans are flexible. Maybe your dad needs someone to come by three days a week for 45 minutes right now, but over time will need a full day every day. The more you plan for evolution before it happens, the easier it will be when it’s time to implement it.
That’s why an expert home care agency in Philadelphia is so valuable. They’ve seen thousands of caregivers and loved ones over the years and can anticipate what’s next. A service provider knows that with someone recovering from surgery, they need intensive help for six weeks, but then it scales back to check-ins and visits on their own. They also know that dementia care typically evolves over time in a predictable way.
Flexibility also applies to caregiver expectations. Your sister might say she’ll come every day after work—but if she’s stretched thin providing her own children with activities and she works herself, that’s unrealistic. Don’t create expectations that may get cancelled after one meeting, for if you create stressors over false hopes, adjustments become harder down the line.
Getting Family on Board
One of the greatest ways that care plans fail is that family is not on the same page—one sibling thinks Mom should have 24/7 coverage while another thinks she’s okay on her own. Not only is this contentious but it’s also irrelevant because at no point will she or anyone else get the help they need at this rate.
Get people together—virtual meetings make this easy—and have one honest conversation. Bring facts as opposed to feelings—saying, “I found the stove on twice last week” is better than saying “I’m concerned with Mom.” If people aren’t there all the time to assess what’s going on, they need facts to process what’s going on around them and find the most workable solution.
Third-party professionals can also serve as mediators—they’re not emotionally charged to prove any point and thus their observations about whether a particular level of care makes sense often go a long way with everyone involved.
Realistic Execution
It’s important that care plans sensibly adhere to personalities and personal preferences otherwise they rarely work. For example, your mom might need assistance with housework but if she’s too private and doesn’t want anyone coming into her house to touch her belongings, don’t force the issue for everyone involved.
For some, having the same caregiver every time works because they feel comfortable with consistent standards. For others, having different people every day works because they enjoy meeting different personalities along the way. Neither option is wrong—it depends on who is receiving the plan.
Similarly, it’s important to assess timing—are caregivers night owls or morning people? Are people who’ve been independent their whole lives more willing to accept help when guidance comes in the form of partnership versus supervision? These may seem like little details but plans go askew when these sensibilities aren’t respected.
Ongoing Assessment of Personalization
Medical situations change; they’re not static. A transition from hospital discharge may momentarily require higher levels of coverage; new medication may require assessment of side effects; seasons change—winter means loneliness but summer means safety from heat exhaustion.
It’s important to have frequent check-ins to see if everything still makes sense with small adjustments along the way—these don’t have to be formal meetings but rather, small conversations about what’s working and what’s not working. Is Dad annoyed that his caregiver shows up when his favorite television show comes on? That’s easy to adjust—but does he need assistance with taking stairs that he didn’t think was an issue three months ago? That’s a bigger adjustment.
Many times, professionals catch something before family does because they’re trained to notice subtle physical changes or cognitive responses. Someone who sees a client once a week may not see patterns that professionals do.
Backup Plan
Most importantly—even the best care plans don’t have alternative options in place—and that’s where things go wrong. If the caregiver comes down sick, what will happen? When holidays hit, who will help? If someone needs to go back to the hospital emergency room, what’s the plan? Everyone needs written records of who to turn to in emergencies instead of scrambling at the last minute without protocol.
Nobody wants to think about these emergencies but writing down the answers prevents chaos from breaking out when they’re almost inevitable.
Ultimately, there’s no pressure on anyone to compile an ideal plan from the start that covers 100% of all possible situations—that’s exhausting and impossible. Instead, flexible accommodations ensure normal changes can be absorbed while structure guarantees everyone knows their role and responsibility so things don’t feel like a burden—but instead—with adequate balance—correct support for all involved.
