Family Care Map

When someone we love is hurt, we want to do something to help them. As professionals, we know that families/loved ones* want to do something in these situations – something that is helpful. This is the spirit of the Family Care Map.

There are a number of tasks that need to be considered during different phases of the treatment process. Often, families are too overwhelmed to think about specifics. Disrupted family function is common following catastrophic injury. Family functioning and support can predict future quality of life and family cooperation can promote successful rehabilitation.

Professionals face challenges of conflict in these situations of high emotion and high stress, as well as meeting both the educational and emotional needs of the families while they are treating patients with compromised health issues and uncertain outcomes.

Our Family Care Map is a tool to assist families and professionals in creating a roadmap for each phase of the treatment process. Our goal is for families to have access to as much information as they may need (and often don’t realize they need it) immediately and in the future.

Goals of the Family Care Map are to:

• Promote mutual trust and understanding between family and team
• Foster optimal family involvement in care and decision-making
• Promote timely and satisfactory information transfer between the family and the treatment team
• Prepare the family for daily life after acute rehabilitation
• Create a common vocabulary and concept for both the families and the team
• Provide practical recommendations for how families can match communication and behavior with rehab process

Click on the icons below for helpful hints on each step of the Family Care Map.

*we will refer to this group collectively as Family