TBI Caregiver Documents You Need!

Transcript:

Some additional videos I wanted to shoot were what caregiver documents they need to have with them at all times. Caregivers often are tasked with watching over someone who’s got a brain injury. Sometimes it’s two to three hours a day. Sometimes it’s four to six. Sometimes it’s even more than that. And what caregivers are responsible for is basically the safety and wellbeing, as well as allowing the person who has suffered a traumatic brain injury to be able to live the life they were entitled to before some type of incident or the acquired brain injury happened, or even if it’s some type of cancer or other form. They should be entitled to be able to go out in the community, cook, participate vigorously in life. The caretaker’s responsible for them for a number of hours a day.

When this caretaker is with the traumatic brain injury victim, they have a number of things that they always need to have. First off, we have a set of documents we give our clients that are basically the caregiver’s tool chest. And what it is is all the contact numbers for everybody. All the doctors that the victim who’s got the traumatic brain injury has, because they’ll have an eye doctor, they’ll have a physical rehabilitation doctor, they’ll have a neurologist, they’ll have a neuropsychologist, they’ll have a number of different doctors, that if you’ve got this type of … All of a sudden, if they’re having an issue with your eyes, you know the doctor to call, so you’ve got the neuro-ophthalmologist number right there, and you can call them and try and set up an appointment if there all of a sudden is an issue. Or let’s say they break their prism glasses. Who do you call?

And if you have all the doctors in one list and a sheet that basically goes with you everywhere, you bring a clipboard, or sometimes you bring a backpack or you do something else, and in that we have a caregiver’s tool chest. It’s got all the numbers for all the doctors. Additionally, it has all the medications and the time and day, and they’re supposed to give them with a checkbox after they give them. It’s got all the contact information of basically what we like to call the social safety net, is the people around the loved one who, if something goes wrong or they need to be picked up or something happens, you can call and have someone to speak with that they know the victim and they have an ability to come try and help. Hopefully those numbers are never needed, but I’d rather have my caregivers who are assisting my clients have those numbers and be ready to do it than not have them.

Those are the three things that we always want in the caregiver’s tool chest, all the doctor’s name and numbers, the medication list and the check boxes, as well as all the contact information for all the people that are the social safety net.

In addition, you always want their ID. You want their medical insurance, as well as any medical allergies. You always want that on them. It’s rare, but a number of people who’ve suffered a traumatic brain injury are prone and significantly more prone to seizures or forgetfulness. And so you never want to be in a situation where all of a sudden they need medical treatment and you don’t have the insurance information. We all know in America, that’s not a great situation. Or you don’t know the allergies that they have. They all of a sudden are having a seizure, and you aren’t sure of the allergies or what type of medical care they may need or not need that may make the situation worse. You always want to have those documents on hand at all time.

It’s the caregiver tool chest that we provide that we know a number of caregivers that use it regularly. That’s what we’d recommend. Documents you have all time. Going through it again. Medical doctors, all their contact info, all the medicines with check boxes after you give them to them. It should be medication, dosage, time of day it’s given, Monday through Sunday. And additionally, you check the box after you do it. All the contact numbers of the social safety net, as well as … I’m forgetting the last thing, all of a sudden. As well as … Well, it’s earlier in the video, so hopefully you get it there and that’s the best I can do for now. I’m tired.