Forewarned is forearmed. That is a cliché we are all tired of hearing. Yet, like most clichés, it is true. That’s what my friend Ken found out. In the middle of a hectic Monday morning he took a call in his New York City office. It was his mother’s neighbor.

“You’d better come immediately. Your Mom has had a stroke.”

The neighbor had gotten Mom to the hospital, where, he told Ken, the emergency room people wanted to know what medications his Mom took regularly, who her primary care physician was and what insurance she had. The neighbor didn’t know.
“Neither do I,” said Ken as he hung up the phone and started the hour and a half trek home.

You may be a home caregiver living in the household with the person for whom you care. You may think you have all of that information at the top of your brain. Don’t count on being able to remember Dr. What’s-His-Name’s telephone number while you’re driving to the hospital. A better way is to put together—now while there is no immediate need—a packet of personal, financial and medical information. Keep it in an easily accessible place, so that if, like Ken, you have to tell somebody over the telephone where to find the needed information, you can easily do so. A secure plastic bag in the freezer is where some emergency paramedics are taught to look for such things.

Put into this packet a copy of the care receiver’s Medicare card. Include the names and telephone numbers of the person’s primary care doctor and any specialists he or she sees regularly. List the names of both prescription and over-the-counter drugs the person takes. List known allergies or adverse drug reactions or drug interactions. List the names and telephone numbers of his or her pharmacist, banker, broker, accountant or whoever prepares taxes, names of persons to be notified in case of emergency. Occasionally it is a good idea to list persons who should not be notified.

If your care receivers are mentally competent, point out that it is a kindness to family and caregivers to prepare a living will. If the care receiver wants a Do Not Resuscitate form, include a copy. In Kentucky there is a standard form called “Living Will Directive.” It must be notarized. Urge your care receivers to let us know whether they want things like respirators and feeding tubes used if they cannot speak for themselves. Do they want CPR if breathing or heartbeat stops?

Come to think of it, it might not be a bad idea to make up a packet like this for yourself and stick it in your own freezer.

Martha Evans Sparks graduated from the University of Kentucky where she majored in journalism. She has master’s degrees in experimental psychology and in library science. She has written four books, one concerning dyslexia and the other three about various phases of caregiving. Check out Martha’s Journal and her books on caregiving on the web at www.martha-evans-sparks.com

Watch for Martha’s fifth book, Raising Your Children’s Children: Help for Grandparents Raising Grandkids, available wherever books are sold after March 1, 2011.