The term “caregiver” encompasses an extensive variety of people –– from medical professionals, to spouses, relatives and friends, all of different ages and abilities. Whatever the specific circumstances though, the role of a caregiver constitutes an enormous responsibility, and can be extraordinarily stressful. So, if you find yourself in a caregiving role, it’s crucial to prioritize your own health and wellbeing to ensure that you can provide the best possible assistance. And part of caring for yourself includes not only finding your downtime and managing nutrition and sleep, but also seeking help when it’s needed.

Many caregivers today can find that help via apps. Right now, the prevailing sentiment regarding the emergence of mobile health apps is that a lot of extremely beneficial tools are either in development or pending approval. These tools will change the nature of healthcare and nursing, in time. With that said however, there are a number of mobile tools that are currently available to make life more manageable for caregivers.

1. Lotsa Helping Hands

This popular app allows the user to create a community centered around a patient or loved one. Invitations can be sent to friends, family, or health professionals –– anyone who is involved and able to support. Essentially, it’s a tool that makes it easier to share caregiving responsibilities, with a built-in calendar function enabling you to coordinate the appropriate assistance when it’s needed. Lotsa Hands is also a particularly clever and useful support application given its intuitive dashboard and how effectively it condenses messages and information in one place.

2. Painscale

Many patients struggle with pain, stress, or disturbances. This app can be a huge help in identifying triggers and any noticeable trends associated with these difficulties. Painscale enables you to enter information detailing pain intensity, levels of activity, and sleep quality, and also record medication dosage. It can then be processed into a report that can be shared between other support sources and health providers, so that care can be adjusted according to need.

3. Medisafe

Another useful tool available for use by the patient and caregivers, Medisafe provides a reminder service for medication administration, alongside a host of other features. Specifically, the app sends pill reminders and/or alarms, as well as notifications when prescriptions are running low. It also contains extensive knowledge of medications, with more than 30,000 drug interaction warnings. You can coordinate all medical appointments on the calendar feature, too.

4. Symple

This journal-based application enables the caregiver to monitor the patient’s wellbeing and physical health. General activity, meals, and medication can be tracked and diarized, and new symptoms can be identified. Symple has an easily navigated interactive calendar, and uses time-stamped images to record medication administration.

5. InsightTimer

Insight Timer is a free resource that offers advice and techniques for reducing stress and anxiety and assisting sleep management. With meditation known to be effective at easing mental stress, this app taps into thousands of related methods, and provides access to calming music, communities, and discussion groups. It’s a full self-care experience meant to help you relax and take care of yourself so that you an best fulfill your caregiving role.

All of the above apps are easily accessible and can help provide support to those giving care. Thank you for reading, and we hope that this list proves useful to you.

Article contributed by Rose Jackson

Exclusively for  JUDY NICHOLSON Kidney Cancer Foundation