Answer a few questions and get a recommended care level, a prioritized to-do list across medical, legal, financial, home-safety & daily-living, plus cost estimates — private, printable.
Drives which tasks surface first.
Gates legal-document urgency.
Leave all unchecked if fully independent (Katz 6/6).
Medications and finances are the two highest-harm tasks to lose.
National average is 27 hrs/wk.
For cost-localization note only.
Quick caregiver-strain check — rate each from Never (0) to Nearly always (4):
This is an organizational and educational checklist — not medical, legal, or financial advice and not a diagnosis. The ADL/IADL counts are simplified adaptations of the Katz Index and Lawton-Brody scale; the strain check is a brief screen, not the validated 22-item Zarit Burden Interview. Use results as a conversation starter with a physician, geriatric care manager, or elder-law attorney. Costs are CareScout/Genworth 2025 national medians and vary 2–3x by region.
When a parent's health declines, adult children are thrown into caregiving with no roadmap — juggling medical, legal, financial, home-safety, and daily-living tasks all at once, usually in crisis mode. This tool turns a handful of answers about your parent's abilities, memory, falls, and existing paperwork into four things: a recommended care level (0 independent → 4 around-the-clock), a prioritized to-do list across the five caregiving domains with the urgent items floated to the top, a monthly cost comparison of the real care options, and a document-readiness meter plus a short caregiver-strain check. Tick items off (saved in your browser), add notes, and print a clean summary to hand to a doctor, attorney, or care manager.
Your father lives alone, has mild forgetfulness, and had one fall last year. He needs help with bathing (1 ADL), and can no longer manage medications or finances (2 IADLs). He has a will but no POA, advance directive, HIPAA release, or medication list. The tool computes a Katz score of 5/6 and a Lawton score of 6/8, and — because he has 1 ADL dependency and a med/money IADL gap — recommends Level 2: part-time help (a home aide several days a week, with medication and meal support), estimating roughly 12–28 care-hours/week. An in-home aide at 20 hrs/wk lands around $3,030/month (national median), versus $6,200 for assisted living. Five of six core documents are missing, so document-readiness is 17% (1/6) and the Financial POA, Medical POA, and advance directive float to the top of the list — flagged because any memory change starts closing the legal capacity window. It also calls out that losing medication and money management are the two highest-harm IADLs.
| Measure | What it counts | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Katz ADL index | Basic self-care: bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, continence, feeding | 0–6 (6 = fully independent) |
| Lawton-Brody IADL scale | Phone, shopping, meals, housekeeping, laundry, transport, medications, finances | 0–8 (8 = fully independent) |
| Care level | Decision rule from ADL/IADL dependencies, memory, and falls | 0 independent → 4 around-the-clock |
| Caregiver strain | Brief 4-item screen (Zarit-derived, not the 22-item ZBI) | 0–16 (13+ = severe) |
| Document readiness | 6 core caregiving documents in place | 0–6 (POA + advance directive most urgent) |
| Level | What it means | Est. care hours/wk |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Independent — focus on prevention & paperwork | 0–4 |
| 1 | Light support / monitoring (chores, transport, check-ins) | 4–12 |
| 2 | Part-time help (home aide several days/wk, meal/med support) | 12–28 |
| 3 | Daily in-home care or assisted living | 28–56 |
| 4 | Around-the-clock / facility (memory care or nursing) | 112–168 |
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It counts ADL dependencies (Katz) and IADL dependencies (Lawton-Brody), then applies a decision rule that also weighs a memory diagnosis and repeated falls, producing Level 0 (independent) through Level 4 (around-the-clock/facility). It's a heuristic to prioritize next steps, not a placement decision.
ADLs are basic self-care (bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, continence, feeding). IADLs are independent-living tasks (phone, shopping, meals, housekeeping, laundry, transport, medications, finances). IADLs usually slip first — and missed meds or money mismanagement are the highest-harm signs.
POA, healthcare proxy, and advance directives can only be signed while your parent has legal capacity. Once cognitive decline removes it, the only path is court guardianship — slow and costly. Any memory change starts closing that window.
Using 2025 national medians: in-home aide ~$35/hr (20 hrs/wk ≈ $3,030/mo), adult day ~$95/day, assisted living ~$6,200/mo, nursing ~$9,580/mo semi-private or ~$10,800 private. Costs vary 2–3x by region. Medicare generally does NOT pay for long-term custodial care.
A short 4-question self-check (0–16) derived from the Zarit Burden Interview concept — not the validated 22-item ZBI. 9 or higher signals high strain and a strong reason to arrange respite or support now.
Yes. Every calculation runs entirely in your browser — no health or personal data is uploaded, stored on a server, or sold. Your answers and checked items are saved only in your browser so they survive a refresh, you can copy a share link that reloads your inputs, and you can print or download a clean summary to take to a doctor, attorney, or care manager.
No — it's an educational checklist, not a diagnosis or professional advice. Use it as a conversation starter with a physician, geriatric care manager, or elder-law attorney.
Everything is computed in your browser and saved only there. We don't store or sell your data. Educational checklist only — not medical, legal, or financial advice.