Most family caregivers never chose the role — it arrived with a diagnosis, a fall or a slow decline. This first lesson helps you see clearly what you are actually doing, what you are not expected to do, and how to set the role up so it lasts.
What family caregivers do
Caregiving tasks fall into three groups. Personal care is hands-on help: bathing, dressing, toileting, eating and moving around. Household and practical help covers meals, cleaning, laundry, shopping, transport, bills and paperwork. Coordination and advocacy means managing appointments, medications, insurance and communication between doctors and family. Many caregivers underestimate the third group, yet it often takes the most hours.
What you are not expected to do
Family caregivers are not nurses. Tasks such as wound care, injections, catheter care or tube feeding should be taught to you by a nurse or therapist before you do them, and some are better left to a home health professional. It is always acceptable to say, “I have not been shown how to do that safely.”
Setting the role up to last
- Write down every task you do in a week. You cannot share what you cannot see.
- Agree with your loved one which decisions are theirs, which are shared and which you will handle.
- Set up a care notebook: contacts, medications, appointments, daily log, paperwork.
- Identify a backup person who can step in if you are ill.
Practice
Complete the “My week as a caregiver” page in your workbook. Circle the three tasks that take the most energy. You will return to this list in Lesson 8.