If you're thinking of hiring a caregiver, you may wonder, "But what do caregivers do, exactly?"
Simple answer: Almost anything.
A caregiver is there to offer assistance to older adults and relief to their loved ones. Caregivers help with activities of daily living (ADLs), such as meal preparation, running errands, medication management, bathing, and other daily tasks. Many older adults form close-knit bonds with their caregivers, which offers companionship.
In the beginning stages of a caregiver relationship, you may feel strange or awkward assigning them tasks — don't be! These individuals are there to help and are happy to take on regular caregiver responsibilities. If there is something you or your aging loved one needs assistance with, don't hesitate to ask your caregiver for help.
Creating a list of regular caregiver responsibilities can make the entire relationship run more smoothly. Below, you'll find a list of daily activities and tasks to add to your care plan.
75 Caregiver Responsibilities to Assign to Your Caregiver
There are a number of advantages to hiring a caregiver. First, they ensure older adults are safe remaining at home. Second, they provide relief to family members who may worry about their loved one living alone.
And last but not least, hiring a caregiver is more affordable than moving to assisted living or a nursing home. When the average monthly cost of assisted living is $4,051, hiring a caregiver to stop by several times a week is less of a financial burden.
With these advantages in mind, here are 75 caregiver duties you might assign:
Personal Care Duties
As you age, you may need assistance bathing, shaving, or maintaining proper hygiene. These are tasks your caregiver would be happy to assist with.
Depending on how many times your caregiver stops by per week, they might be able to do the following:
Assist with bathing or showering
Drive to a hair appointment
Offer help with shaving
Assist with toileting
Help with getting dressed
Offer to do a manicure or pedicure
Errands and Transportation Duties
Depending on where you live, most caregivers will have a driver's license and will be happy to transport you to various appointments. If you wish to go with your caregiver on these outings, it can make for an enjoyable daytime activity. After all, it's far more fun to do these with a companion, than it is to do them by yourself:
Return library books (and check out new reads)
Drive to the salon, massage therapist, or other pampering outings
Take you grocery shopping
Take you to the bank or post office
Pick up prescriptions
Accompany you to medical appointments
Pick you up from doctor's appointments
Offer to drive to or from your place of worship
Pick up or drop-off dry cleaning
Wash or drive your car to be serviced
Drive you to group workout class (maybe they'll even workout with you!)
Drive you to a book club, coffee meetings, or support groups
Help you pack for a trip
Household Chores and Maintenance
As you age, the home you love may become increasingly difficult to care for. Keeping your home neat and tidy adds to your overall quality of life. Therefore, you can ask a home caregiver to help with household or lawn tasks, including:
Refilling pet feeders
Watering flowers or plants
Washing sheets
Carrying laundry baskets or doing laundry
Weeding the yard
Ironing clothes
Shoveling the sidewalk
Raking the leaves
Setting up or taking down holiday decorations
Throwing out expired food products
Taking out trash (or wheel trash bins to the curb)
Changing batteries around the house
Dusting the furniture
Cleaning floors (if it's hard to bend down)
Replacing light bulbs
Taking unused items to charity or drop-off donate sites
Cleaning out junk drawers
Technological Support
While helping with technology is not a traditional caregiving role, you'll find many caregivers are quite tech-savvy. If you and your caregiver have a free afternoon, don't hesitate to ask if they can help with the following:
Setting you up on a meal delivery system
Refilling ink cartridges in your printer
Printing out photos from Facebook or your email
Checking email and deleting spam messages
Creating an electronic calendar for birthdays and anniversaries
Setting you up on Facebook or email
Searching for a handyman or cleaning service online
Setting up Uber or Lyft apps on your smartphone
Setting up the Snug app on your smartphone
Teaching you to use Google Maps or another map app on your phone
Showing you how to Zoom with friends and loved ones
Showing you how to FaceTime with friends and loved ones
Installing the Uber Eats, Grubhub, or other takeout apps
Finding a trusted tax preparer or accountant
Teaching you to use Google
General Medical Assistance
Some medical care is not within a caregiver's job description. However, many professional caregivers offer general medical assistance, such as taking temperatures, scheduling doctors appointments, providing medication management, or communicating any new or developing symptoms to a doctor.
If you or your loved one has Alzheimer's disease, chronic high blood pressure, or cardiovascular disease, you might want to consider hiring a home health aide or nurse's assistant to drop by once a week. These individuals can check blood pressure and do light health screenings directly from your home.
Here are a few caregiving responsibilities you can assign:
Oversee prescriptions or administer medications
Make doctor, dentist, and optometrist appointments
Oversee physical therapy exercises
Help practice using a cane or walker
Note any changes in health and communicate them to medical professionals
Orient someone with dementia
Basic Food Preparation
Eating nutritious food and sticking to a balanced diet is essential to your well-being. Your caregiver can help with basic food and meal prep tasks, including:
Driving you to the farmers market or grocery store
Chopping vegetables
Storing leftovers in sealable containers
Setting you up on a meal kit service
Preparing ready-to-eat healthy snacks, such as chopped veggies or hard boiled eggs
Picking-up takeout from your favorite restaurant
Driving you to lunch outings
Emotional Support and Companionship
The bond between a caregiver and care recipient is more of a benefit than a formal task. However, it is very common for family caregivers to offer companionship in the following ways:
Reading a book out loud
Playing music
Arranging visits with friends and loved ones
Reminding you of birthdays, anniversaries, and other special events
Walking pets
Having regular conversations
Stopping by a coffee shop together
Looking through photo albums together
Finding local exercise or reading groups
Helping to find books with large print
Shopping for clothes or necessary items
Hiring a Caregiver Can Be Beneficial and Rewarding
A caregiver provides assistance with daily tasks for aging adults. If you or a loved one need assistance with grooming, food preparation, or running errands, hiring a caregiver may be a worthwhile investment.
If you want to maintain your independence and continue to live at home, a caregiver can help make that possible. Not only will a caregiver help you get dressed in the morning or help you get in and out of the shower, they can ensure your home is a safe place to live, assisting with general house and lawn maintenance.
Lastly, it's not uncommon for caregivers to take on other roles of senior care, such as driving you to your place of worship, helping install apps on your phone, or simply participating in regular, everyday conversations about life.
If you're hiring a caregiver, ask them to install the Snug app on your phone. With the Snug app, you can set your caregiver as your emergency contact. If you ever miss a daily check-in, we will notify your caregiver to come check on you — even if they're not scheduled that day.