Most families know something is wrong before they can say what. She’s fine, mostly. She’s managing. But you left her house last Sunday with a feeling you couldn’t name.
What this is
This is the assessment a visiting nurse runs on a first home visit — the same activities-of-daily-living framework used across home health and long-term care. Fourteen questions. About ten minutes.
At the end you’ll know how much help she actually needs, in hours, and what kind. Not a feeling. A number you can say out loud to a doctor, a sibling, or an agency.
Before you start
Answer honestly rather than generously. Most people overestimate how well a parent is coping — because that’s the answer they want to be true, and because she has been managing it in front of you for years.
It is free. Nothing is stored. Nobody calls you.
At the end, you get this:
“She needs a paid aide, most days, for real hands-on help.”
A sentence you can say out loud. Not a score. Not a feeling.
What this means
- Level of help
- Rough hours a week
- Hands-on needs
Raise these with a doctor
Where the gaps are
What to do next
What Medicare will and won’t send to the house
Home health and palliative care are not the same thing, they are paid for differently, and neither one puts a person in the house overnight. CMS just proposed a change that is about to make this more confusing, not less.
Read the honest version →This checklist is built on the activities-of-daily-living framework used across home health and long-term care. It is a starting point for a conversation — with a doctor, a family, or an agency — not a clinical assessment, a diagnosis, or a determination of eligibility for any benefit program. Only a clinician who has examined the person can do that. See our disclaimers.
Know someone who needs this?
Pass it along — it’s free, and it might be exactly what a family you know is searching for right now.