Caregiving journal prompts
A caregiving journal does two jobs: it keeps the practical record that the next appointment will need, and it gives you somewhere to be a person rather than a role. Both halves are here, and the second one matters as much.
How to use these
Write the practical note first, while it is exact. Then, if you have five more minutes, answer one from the last set for yourself.
The record
Exact beats complete. A dated line with a time on it is worth more at an appointment than a paragraph written from memory a week later.
- How were they today, compared with yesterday?
- What did they need, and what worked?
- What did not work, and what would you try instead?
- What should you raise at the next appointment, in their words and yours?
- What changed this week that someone taking over would need to know?
- What did they eat, take, and sleep today?
- What was said at the call or visit today, and by whom?
- What is due, running out, or waiting on somebody?
Them, still themselves
The half a medical record has no room for. These are the entries that will matter long after the practical ones stop being needed.
- What went well today that you would not have predicted?
- What was the good moment today, however brief?
- What would you like remembered about how you did this?
- What did they say today that sounded like them?
- What made them laugh, or nearly?
- What do you want to ask them while you can?
- What are they still able to do that matters to them?
- What have you learned about them that you did not know before?
You, separately
Not an afterthought. A caregiver with nowhere to put any of this is the most common way the arrangement ends.
- How are you holding up, honestly?
- What did you have to give up this week?
- Who helped, and who could you ask?
- What are you angry or sad about that has nowhere to go?
- What do you need that would actually make a difference?
- When did you last have two hours that were yours?
- What are you carrying that is not actually yours to carry?
- Who else should be doing something, and what would it take to ask?
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