Mobility

Caregiver decision guides

Considerations and clinician-facing questions for hard, non-factual family calls — never a directive answer.

• Your First 90 Days as a Caregiver for an Aging Parent

  This staged 90-day roadmap helps new family caregivers move from overwhelm to a sustainable plan by breaking the early months into three focused phases: assess your parent's needs, organize legal and financial essentials, and build a support system. It provides a clear sequence of actions so you know what to do first, next, and after.

• Helping Elderly with Technology: A Caregiver’s Step-by-Step Guide to Teaching Smartphones, Tablets & Smart Home Devices

  This guide provides adult children with a research-backed, learner-centered framework for teaching their aging parents how to use smartphones, tablets, and smart home devices. It addresses the four real barriers to adoption—lack of perceived value, fear of breaking something, ignorance of features, and privacy anxiety—and offers a practical, step-by-step teaching method that builds confidence and independence.

• Home Care vs. Assisted Living vs. Nursing Home: A 2026 Cost Comparison and Decision Guide for Families

  This guide helps adult children compare the true costs of home care, assisted living, and nursing homes in 2026. It provides a state-by-state cost breakdown, explains what each option covers, and offers a decision matrix to match your parent's needs to the right level of care.

• What Home Health Care for the Elderly Is and Isn't

  This guide explains what home health care for the elderly is, how it differs from home care, and what Medicare covers — so families can make informed decisions after a hospital discharge or chronic care referral.

• How to Get Help Caring for Elderly Parents: A Step-by-Step Action Plan for Adult Children

  A structured, 8-step action plan for adult children who need to arrange care for an aging parent. This guide walks you through assessing needs, having the conversation, finding services, understanding costs, and coordinating care — so you can move from worry to action with clarity.

• How to Talk to Your Aging Parents About Needing More Help: A Communication Guide for Adult Children

  Struggling to start the conversation about needing more help? This guide provides evidence-based frameworks—including the AARP 5-tip approach—to talk with aging parents about increased care while preserving your relationship, with specific scripts and advice on what to do if they refuse.

• In-Home Nursing Care vs. Home Care vs. Home Health Aide: What Families Must Know About the Differences

  Many families confuse companion care, personal care, home health aides, and skilled nursing—leading to denied insurance claims and unnecessary out-of-pocket costs. This guide breaks down the four service tiers with legal scope-of-practice, training requirements, and insurance coverage details so you can choose the right level of care.

• Personal Hygiene Assistance for Seniors: A Caregiver's Guide

  A comprehensive, task-specific guide for family caregivers on how to assist aging parents or spouses with personal hygiene — covering why hygiene declines, step-by-step techniques for bathing, grooming, oral care, skin care, and incontinence, and how to manage resistance while preserving dignity and independence.

• Why Falls Are Different for Polio Survivors Aging at Home

  Polio survivors fall at roughly four times the rate of other older adults, yet most standard fall-prevention advice misses their unique physical and psychological challenges. This guide helps caregivers understand why falls happen differently for polio survivors and what condition-specific steps to take.

• How to Keep Older Adults Safe During a Power Outage

  This guide helps family caregivers protect older adults from the disproportionate risks of power outages — including medication loss, medical device failure, temperature extremes, and darkness-related falls — with evidence-backed steps for each season.

• How to prevent foodborne illness when cooking for an older adult

  Learn the specific food safety practices caregivers need to adopt when cooking for an older adult at home, from understanding medication interactions to adjusting kitchen routines for a declining sense of smell and taste.

• Your Elderly Parent Ate Recalled Lettuce — Now What?

  A crisis checklist for caregivers whose elderly parent may have eaten recalled lettuce — covering immediate actions to confirm the recall, stop consumption, preserve evidence, deep-clean the kitchen, and monitor for symptoms with a lower threshold for medical care, since Listeria can incubate for up to 70 days and seniors often show atypical signs.