Holding an Effective Family Meeting

On Thursday’s edition of Your Caregiving Journey, Jeannie Keenan of My Health Care Manager, joined us for a discussion on how to hold an effective family meeting. (You can listen to the show via the player, below, at the bottom of the post.)

Jeannie suggests holding a family meeting when:

• Caregiving begins and one individual takes on the role of primary family caregiver;

• Your care recipient experiences a change in condition, including a hospitalization;

• You and other family members have differing opinions about a care plan or course of treatment;

• End-of-life care care must be decided.

We also discussed Rules of Engagement for meetings; i.e., holding everyone accountable for expected behaviors. Such rules may be:

• Only one person speaks at a time;

• Everyone has an opportunity to be heard;

• An agenda, complete with time restraints, accompanies every meeting;

• The agenda is limited to the Top 3, but no more than Top 5, priorities;

• Meetings end with consensus on action items;

• Agree to disagree.

Let this question guide your discussions and decisions: What’s best for our care recipient?

As promised, here’s the Fist-to-Five consensus-building tool. When your family is ready to make a decision, you can use this tool to gauge support for or against the action or plan. It’s a terrific, objective vehicle to express opinions while taking steps to resolve any outstanding concerns.