I'm not good with routine. The thought of actually sticking to the same routine day after day or week to week actually scares me. It makes it difficult for me to form a good exercise routine, or stick to a care plan when medication is prescribed.
However, I am doubly motivated when my kids are at stake. I realise I need to take extra responsibility with their care plan, at least until they are old enough to start taking some of their own responsibility.
Reminders on my phone and watch have saved my life, or at least my mental health. I almost find it relaxing to dump all those energy-sapping thoughts of things I must not forget to some app that will help me remember it at the right time.
Helping you remember
This is exactly where Tracto excels: it allows parents to easily add medication and activities to their child's care plan, and set regular reminders for those. To help nudge you. Medication can be selected from a basic list of active ingredients, or you can add your own brand name medications or custom activities by just typing the name and adding it.
The better one adheres to a care plan, the bigger the chances are that the care plan will have a positive impact on your child's condition, leading to improved health outcomes for your child.
A care plan might not even require medication, but can consist of regular activities, like therapies or just being reminded to do regular physical exercise or quality time with your child. And a nudge from an unemotional source is perhaps the thing we need to help stick to the plan.
Another nifty feature is that other parents or guardians on your child’s care team are notified as these items are ticked off, thus keeping everyone in the loop and helping with follow-up if expected items are not being marked as done.
Having said that, it is also important to take a break from routine every now and again, and Tracto makes it easy to pause reminders until a specified date, e.g. allowing for trips away from the routine at home.
How are we doing?
Over time you can keep an eye on adherence to the care plan in the Progress view, and see whether things are going better or worse. It is also easy to share this adherence data, and the actual record of when the various medication and activity items were marked as done, to doctors, therapists and others involved with your child's care journey.
Imagine being able to see the impact of sticking to a care plan on concerns — like anxiety, concentration or hyperactivity — over time, and either reinforcing that the care plan is on the right track, or allowing you as parent to more quickly see when things are not going well, and being able to adjust it.
That is the beauty of having the right information at your fingertips when you need it, so you can ultimately make better decisions for your child's wellbeing.
* Feature photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash.