A caregiver has arrived. Your phone is on. Your sister said she can help. The agency has an office number. That is not yet a working contact plan.
The plan works only when the caregiver can tell which number fits the problem, who answers next, and how long to wait. Federal emergency planning guidance tells households to decide how they will contact one another and reconnect when separated. The same basic discipline belongs on the caregiver's first shift. See the public-page notes collected on Sources.
1. Name the person who maintains the sheet
Put one person in charge of correcting phone numbers, changing the call order, and giving the current sheet to every caregiver. This is maintenance work, not an honorary title.
Write it down:
Contact-sheet owner: ____________________
Best number: ____________________
Backup person if the owner is unavailable: ____________________
Ask the family: "Who can change this sheet?"
Listen for one name. "We all keep an eye on it" leaves the caregiver to decide which relative has authority.
Walk away from the setup and fix it if different relatives are handing out different instructions.
2. Separate the reasons to call
Do not print one undifferentiated list of relatives. Give each type of call a route.
Use at least these lines:
Immediate danger or suspected emergency: call emergency services first, then ____________________
Caregiver cannot enter the house: ____________________
Person receiving care is not home: ____________________
Routine household question: ____________________
Schedule question: ____________________
Caregiver expects to leave late: ____________________
Provider office or supervisor: ____________________
Ready.gov separates emergency communication from the ordinary ways household members reconnect. That distinction is why an emergency instruction should not be buried under routine family numbers. Source details are listed on Sources.
Do not ask a caregiver to decide whether an immediate danger is merely a family scheduling problem. Put the emergency instruction at the top of the page.
3. Build an order, not a crowd
For each non-emergency problem, give the caregiver a first call, a waiting rule, and a second call.
Write one route:
First call: ____________________
If there is no answer after ______ minutes, call: ____________________
If the second person does not answer, call: ____________________
Leave a voicemail: yes / no
Send a text: yes / no
Ask each person on the list: "Can you answer during the actual shift hours?"
Listen for a specific answer tied to work hours, sleep, travel, or phone restrictions. "Usually" is not coverage.
If nobody can reliably answer during a recurring shift, change the order or add someone who can. Do not solve the gap by printing more unreliable names.
4. Ask the provider who receives which calls
If an agency or other provider is involved, ask:
"Which number does the caregiver use during the shift?"
"Which number works outside office hours?"
"Who answers each number?"
"Which problems must be reported to you?"
"If nobody answers, what is the next step?"
Write the answers beside the numbers. Do not convert an answering service, voicemail box, or general office line into a promise of immediate help.
If you are hiring directly, assign these functions yourself. The site's agency-or-direct guide explains why the hiring route changes who performs the ongoing administrative work.
Walk away from an unfinished start if the provider says help is always available but will not identify the number, the responder, or the fallback.
5. Test the route before the caregiver works alone
Call every number from the place where the caregiver will find the sheet. Say that this is a contact-plan test. Confirm the person's name and role.
Record the result:
Number tested: ____________________
Who answered: ____________________
Role confirmed: ____________________
Fallback tested: ____________________
Correction needed: ____________________
A saved contact in your phone is not proof that the caregiver has the same number. A family group text is not proof that anyone owns the reply. Test the exact route printed for the caregiver.
6. Put the sheet where the work happens
Keep one copy in the agreed household location and give the provider or direct-hire caregiver the same version. Tell everyone which copy controls when an old screenshot or handwritten note disagrees.
Write it down:
Household location: ____________________
Provider or caregiver received a copy: yes / no
Old copies removed: yes / no
Do not include account passwords, payment information, or unrelated private records. The sheet needs enough information to route a call, not enough information to become the household file.
7. Give changes an owner and a trigger
The owner should review the sheet whenever a listed person changes numbers, becomes unavailable during shift hours, leaves the provider, or asks to be removed. Federal household-planning guidance recommends keeping communication plans current and practicing them. The supporting public pages are identified on Sources.
Use a simple maintenance line:
Change reported by: ____________________
What changed: ____________________
Owner corrected the household copy: yes / no
Owner sent the correction to the caregiver or provider: yes / no
Old copy removed: yes / no
Do not place a calendar date on the sheet and assume that makes it current. A working sheet is one that has an owner, a tested route, and a correction process.
8. Run one first-shift drill
During the first shift, ask the caregiver to point to the person they would contact for three situations: no entry, a routine household question, and an immediate danger.
Listen for the printed order. If the caregiver names somebody else, correct either the sheet or the instruction before leaving them alone.
Final check:
The caregiver can find the sheet: yes / no
The caregiver can explain the call order: yes / no
The first and second contacts know their roles: yes / no
One person owns corrections: yes / no
If any answer is no, the next move is not another family phone call. Finish that line, test it, and replace every outdated copy.