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September 15, 2020 By Bobbi Ebbing Comments are Off

Using Sortifyd to Manage the Care of a Loved One

If you are one of the estimated 63 million caregivers in the world, then you are familiar with the stress and chaos that is involved with trying to manage the care of a loved one.

As a caregiver for my older sister, I fall into this category. Fortunately, I love anything related to organizing, and thanks to that trait, I thought other caregivers would find a blog post helpful on how you can more easily manage the care of your loved one by using Sortifyd.

 

My personal caregiving situation and why I decided to use Sortifyd

Without going into too much detail, my sister suffers from several medical conditions that impair her ability to take care of herself. While I am a caregiver (by definition), when it comes to my sister’s life, I am truly more of a life manager (which shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows me). Her doctor appointments, what medications is she on, what paperwork I have to track and share with her, where is her insurance card, etc. It’s a lot of information to organize, manage, and constantly share.

Even though I use Sortifyd for my own family, it never occurred to me to create an account to manage and organize all the items involved with taking care of my sister. Before my mother passed away in June, she and I both shared the role of managing my sister’s life. We basically had no system in place… we would both just search our files whenever we needed something. After she passed away, my father began helping me and I realized that what I had been doing would no longer work – mainly because it was a wake-up call that if something happened to me, no one would be able to easily step in to help my sister… as we quickly discovered in the growing absence of my mother. This is when a lightbulb went off, and I created a Sortifyd account for managing my sister’s life.

With the Sortifyd plan that we are on, we can have up to five users. This allows my father, my sister, and I to all share an account, and I can even add two more users… which means I can add two of her main caregivers eventually (this is on my to-do list). This helps tremendously, as there are multiple people that are involved with managing the care of an adult with disabilities.

How I am using Sortifyd

If you are a caregiver, you know there are a lot of doctor’s appointments, records, reminders, etc. that need to be kept track of. And if you manage the care of an adult who lives by themself or schedules their own appointments, things can quickly become disorganized. This is exactly why I am sharing the list below… which includes the ways that I am using Sortifyd to organize and manage her care and some additional ideas on how others may be able to use Sortifyd.

Medical:

Add primary care physicians, specialists, home health, etc. appointments to the calendar and include a reminder before their appointment. Set the reminder for at least double the travel time before they need to be there.
Save a copy of their health insurance card, so they can search for it within Sortifyd and show it to the doctor’s office upon check-in. No more last-minute calls and hurrying to fax over a copy of the card!
Save a list of their medications, along with photos of their current prescription – so there never is any confusion as to what medication/strength they are taking.
Store records of their medical history. Save their past conditions, treatments that worked, etc. to help you recall this information whenever you need it.
Record all their allergies – food, medications, etc.

Fun Stuff:

Memory timeline… so this is something on my to-do list that is a ‘feel-good’ item you can use in Sortifyd. You (and anyone else in the account) can add and view any memories – vacation photos, old baby photos, etc. It provides your loved one an easy way to reflect on the happy moments in life.
Create a list of helpful books to read or fun movies they should watch. Or even activities to do when they are bored (games, safe park to walk, etc.).

General Items:

Save a copy of automobile insurance (if your loved one drives), so you don’t have to worry that they lose another copy of the card.
If you (or your loved one) utilizes any grocery delivery service, you should definitely take advantage of the shared list feature. To help with saving money on groceries, have your loved one create a meal plan in Sortifyd, and then add items to the shared grocery list. The shared grocery list is definitely helpful when scheduling grocery pick-up or when you order in bulk.
Add contacts that you want your loved one to have access to in Sortifyd. No more excuses about losing a number!
Add tasks to a shared to-do list! Instead of texting them something you need them to do, just add it to your shared to-do list. The huge benefit of this is that you can create a reminder (and it shows up on their calendar inside Sortifyd)… which means hearing, “I forgot” less!
Save a copy of their driver’s license, in case they ever lose their hard copy.
Save receipts, tax documents, and anything else needed for annual reviews of SSI/SSA benefits, SNAP (food stamps), or taxes.
If you manage your loved one’s finances, you probably find yourself shopping online whenever your loved one needs something (especially in the current world of COVID). Save all of their clothing sizes in Sortifyd, so you can easily check to see if something will fit them, whenever you see a sale.

Conclusion

As someone who also is taking care of my own family and juggling the world of running a small business, I have often struggled with managing the life of another adult – especially with my own chaos to deal with. Even though my mother was a huge help, I honestly think using Sortifyd would have saved us several stressful moments, especially as her own health became worse at the beginning of this year. After she passed, the value of spending time with loved ones increased exponentially, so believe me when I say that using Sortifyd has saved me precious time that is more valuable than any currency in the world.

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