Tasks Worries Attitudes Worksheet

National Family Caregivers Association

This worksheet is useful in helping you identify and organize all the many things you do as a family caregiver and help you identify who can help you. You can also identify your attitude and worries related to the many tasks you do. The value of this exercise is to sort out the many tasks and associated concerns on paper and start to define what you need and how to approach caregiving concerns using your problem-solving skills.

1. Start with listing tasks and/or needs for a given week. Include even the simplest tasks, like going to the grocery store or taking your mom to her doctor's appointment. Next identify how friends or family can help - including providing rides, doing grocery shopping, or providing emergency support in case something happens.

List of Tasks or Needs

How Friends or Family Can Help

Example: A homecare aid

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Example: Coordinate a volunteer team to help out with hands-on caregiving

1. You may want to group the above ideas into categories, broad or specific. For example, chores like doing laundry and cleaning the house can go into a Household bucket.

1. Use the worksheet below, to identify your worries and attitudes towards each need or task from above. Attitude has to do with whether you like performing the task and if you must do the task yourself. For the worry column write down questions or concerns related to the task. Use the categories provided or write in your own.

List of Major Tasks, Attitudes, and Worries

Tasks

Attitudes

Like (L); Dislike/No Time (DL/NT); Must Do Myself (MDM); Ho Hum (HH)

Worries

Personal Care

Example: Bathing Mom

DL/MDM

She'll only let me do this - how can I convince her to have an aide help her?

Medical Care and Medications

Example: Taking Dad to doctor's appointment

HH

If a friend gives him a ride, how do I make sure I know what the doctor says?

Household Chores and Errands

Example: Mow the lawn

L

Finances

Example: Apply for Medicaid

DL

How will we pay for whatever Medicaid won't cover? Or what if Mom Is refused Medicaid?

Category: ___________________

Category: __________________

1. Now what? Take just one of the tasks on your list and ask for someone for help with it or seek guidance in resolving your top worry. Also, now you'll have an easy response when someone offers to help - just refer to this list for what to have them do.

Content shown was developed in collaboration between AGIS and National Family Caregivers Association.