Better preparation and education for patients and families
We hope to make your hospital stay more enjoyable. If you have any questions or comments please ask any of our “Partner With Me” team members. Family Education Packets can be downloaded below or obtained from the Memory and Aging Center and UCSF Volunteer office.
- Partnering with Family Caregivers: A Guide for Hospitalization When Your Loved One has Dementia video
- Pre-Hospitalization Checklist for Patients with Memory Impairment
- Hospitalization Schedule for Family Visitation of the Memory Impaired Patient
- Hospitalization Happens: A Guide to Hospital Visits for Individuals with Memory Loss
- Family Caregiver Alliance: 10 Real Life Strategies for Dementia Caregiving
- Family Caregivers Alliance: Caregiver's Guide to Understanding Dementia Behaviors
- Family Caregiver Alliance: Caring for Adults with Cognitive and Memory Impairment
- North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Aging: Acute Hospitalization & Alzheimer’s Disease: A Special Kind of Care
Getting specific, nuanced personal information from families and providing it to providers
We realize that family caregivers of patients with memory problems have a lot of information about their loved ones. The "Partner With Me" program will help the hospital staff learn about your loved one's normal routines. We want to try our best to continue these routines as much as possible while your loved one is in the hospital. We want to understand your loved one’s personal choices and daily routines of communication, grooming, food and fluids, taking medicines, activity level and day/night schedules. We developed a series of questions that help us form a care plan around the regular routines of your loved one. We hope that by continuing the regular schedule as much as possible, we can minimize the stress and anxiety of being in the hospital. These documents can be downloaded below or obtained from the Memory and Aging Center.
Our trained volunteers will collect the specific information to develop a detailed care plan for your loved one. The hospital staff will use this care plan to help them provide optimal care during your loved one's stay. Our volunteers will also give you additional educational information when it is time to leave the hospital.
Developing a cadre of well-trained volunteers to interact with patients and families
We encourage more hospitals to train their own volunteers to interview family caregivers and complete questionnaires developed specifically for this program. These patient-specific care plans can then be posted in the patient’s rooms as well as in the patient's chart. This information helps to guide the staff as well as ancillary services on the most effective way to care for the patient. Volunteers can also provide support and activities to enrolled patients. Volunteer documents can be downloaded below or obtained from the Memory and Aging Center and UCSF Volunteer office.
- Partner With Me Hospital Volunteer Competency
- Partner With Me Volunteer/Patient Activities
- Partner With Me Volunteer Script
- Partner With Me Volunteer/Patient Protocol
- Partner With Me Volunteer/Patient Worksheet
- Alzheimer’s Association "Dementia Friendly Hospital" training
Partner With Me Team
Please contact us with any questions or suggestions.
