Somebody has to put the daily routine on paper before the first shift. Who writes it decides how much of the work stays with your family and how much moves to the provider. Choose the owner on purpose.

Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.

Step 1: List the day as it runs now

  1. Write every task the household handles in a normal day, in the order it happens. Include the morning start, meals, any walk or outing, the afternoon, and the evening wind-down.
  2. Next to each task, write the time it usually happens: ______
  3. Mark each task with one letter. C means the caregiver does it. P means the parent does it alone. F means the family keeps it.

Step 2: Decide who drafts the first version

Two routes are common. In the first, your family writes the routine sheet from Step 1 and gives it to the provider before the first shift. In the second, the provider's intake process writes its own service plan and you review it. Either route can work. The route that fails is the one where nobody writes the routine down and each side assumes the other did.

Circle your route: Family drafts / Provider drafts / Provider drafts, family reviews line by line

Step 3: Put these items on the sheet

  • Arrival and departure times, and the phone number to call if the caregiver is running late
  • Where keys, the door code, and the emergency sheet are kept
  • Pets, allergies, and food preferences
  • Medication reminder times, copied exactly as the doctor or pharmacy wrote them. A caregiver may give reminders and pick up prescriptions as an errand. The family keeps the supply, the pharmacy relationship, and every decision about doses.
  • What the parent does alone, and what the caregiver should not take over
  • What to do when the parent refuses a task. Write the plain instruction: ____________

Step 4: Name the owner of the master copy

One person in the family holds the master version and approves every change. Write the name: ____________

The provider keeps the copy it works from. Every change goes onto the master in writing, with a note of who agreed to it.

Signs the plan is not ready

  • The provider wants to write the whole plan alone and does not want your review.
  • The routine sheet has no owner name.
  • Tasks you marked F appear in the provider's plan as C.

The first-stretch steps are laid out on Start Here: Five Steps to Hiring.