ChatGPT for Family Caregivers: A Game-Changer or a Gimmick?

ChatGPT is one of many AI tools that has broken into the market. Like similar tools, it allows you to type messages to an AI that then responds based on a large amount of data.

There’s enormous potential in this tool for caregivers, as it may help caregivers to quickly find information and insights in a variety of different fields.

Using my experience in family caregiving and aging and our popular topics from visitors to Kapok’s blog, I used specific prompts to measure ChatGPT’s helpfulness in these areas. In this post, I showcase ChatGPT’s strengths for caregivers, plus some limitations to watch out for.

Let’s see whether ChatGPT is actually helpful or whether it is just another gimmick.

My version of ChatGPT OpenAI is 3.5

My Experiences with ChatGPT for Caregiving

Information and Education

ChatGPT combs through a large amount of information online, allowing it to summarize and present a considerable amount of information. It has the potential to:

• Provide information on medical conditions and treatment options.
• Explain caregiving techniques and strategies.
• Offer guidance on medication management and side effects.

Prompt 1: “How can I help my elderly mother get out of the shower safely?”

Prompt 1 yielded quality guidance to prevent falls and slips, including recommended modifications to the bathroom. It also suggested securing mobility aids and installing safety features like grab bars.

I thought you could follow up with an additional prompt and ask it to make recommendations based on your loved one’s weight or bathroom type.

However, it didn’t offer specific products or brands when asking for recommendations for grab bars for a 250 lb woman.

Instead, it offered guidance on what to keep in mind when purchasing one, such as ensuring that it’s compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards and that it has been tested and certified against safety standards. It adds suggested looking length, size, aesthetics, and other parameters.

It’s not what I was looking for, but still helpful information.

Prompt 2: “How can I help my dad, who has a bad knee, up the stairs?”

With Prompt 2, ChatGPT provided a mix of essential but decent tips and encouraged conversations with their primary care provider to ensure there weren’t other considerations associated with the severity of his “bad knee.”

In contrast, an article on the topic will likely consider which tips are relevant for different causes and severities of knee problems.

Prompt 3: “Can you send me a list of cancer survivor support groups within 10 miles.”

With Prompt 3, ChatGPT suggested I enter this prompt online to populate an actual listing of contacts and organizations offering support groups.

While it named specific organizations, like Susan G Komen and the American Cancer Society, it did not provide URLs/websites, phone numbers, or specific contact information. It also suggested other approaches, such as asking friends or providers for referrals and exploring social media, including Facebook and Reddit, for support.

Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Bing Chat both answer this question better with links to nearby organizations. However, none provide phone numbers even when asked to.

Information and Education Prompt Ideas

• Give me strategies for [TOPIC] (e.g., give me strategies for incontinence care, give me strategies for fall prevention)
• What are some tips for helping a senior to [ISSUE]? (e.g., what are some tips for helping a senior to use the toilet?)
• How can I care for a parent with dementia at home?
• How can I help improve a senior’s sleep?
• Give me more details about melatonin for seniors.
• Give me a list of medications that can make a senior constipated.

Care Planning

Care planning is a crucial area, as many caregivers won’t know where to begin. AI may be able to help in the following areas:

• Help create a care plan for the loved one, including scheduling appointments and managing daily routines.
• Assist in setting short-term and long-term caregiving goals.

Prompt 4: “Create a care plan for an 80-year-old man with type 2 diabetes and lower back pain.”

I wasn’t sure how this could work out, but I was rather impressed with the outcomes.

The Care Plan template left spaces for me to insert missing information, such as known allergies. The plan also listed specific goals, actions, and follow-ups tailored to our fake senior’s conditions.

Examples of goals included maintaining stable blood sugar levels within the target range, alleviating lower back pain and improving mobility, enhancing the patient’s ability to perform daily activities, following a balanced diet, ensuring adherence to diabetes medications, and so on. There were specific actions under each.

Adding specific medication details (e.g., medication name, dosage, frequency) could improve the care plan’s accuracy and include particular target ranges like those for blood sugars.

Prompt 5: “Create a care plan for a 70-year-old woman with osteoarthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, and asthma who is in an assisted living facility.”

For Prompt 5, I was impressed with its recommendations to collaborate with the facility staff and consider goals related to the individual’s emotional well-being. Its recommendations also focused on nutrition, hydration, medication, and pain management.

I imagine that adding the specific drugs, as well as the stage or level of cognitive impairment, could lead to more relevant goals and actions.

Here are two additional examples of the goals and actions provided:

Cognitive Support for Alzheimer’s Disease

• Goal: Provide a safe and supportive environment for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.
• Actions:
  • Implement structured daily routines and visual cues to assist with memory and orientation.
  • Engage the patient in cognitive exercises and activities to stimulate mental function.
  • Ensure supervision to prevent wandering or other safety risks.

Asthma Management

• Goal: Maintain asthma control and prevent exacerbations.
• Actions:
  • Administer asthma medications, including inhalers, as prescribed by the healthcare provider.
  • Monitor peak flow measurements and symptoms to adjust asthma management as necessary.
  • Ensure a clean and allergen-free environment within the facility.

If your loved one is in a facility, you may want to run any Care Plan by the nurse care manager. Often, they may take the lead in creating one and may consider a Care Plan to be their responsibility.

However, a Care Plan can also be helpful to caregivers managing their loved one’s care at home who wish to get organized, get the big picture, and may need to convey the plan to multiple caregivers (paid or other unpaid family members).

Having a care plan is useful to identify gaps and areas for improvement and see where changes are needed.

Care Planning Prompt Ideas

• Create an emergency plan for a household with a two year old and a senior.
• Create a care plan template for a senior with dementia living at home.
• Create a care plan for a senior with severe cognitive impairment and diabetes living at home, with safety as the primary goal.

Resources and Services

Potential ways that ChatGPT could help with resources and services include the following.

• Share information on local support groups, respite care services, and home health agencies.
• Help find financial assistance programs and benefits available for caregivers.

Prompt 6: “Send me a list of highly rated home health agencies within a 20-mile radius whose hourly rate is below $30/hour.”

In response to Prompt 6, ChatGPT stated they could not help me with this.

“I’m sorry, but I cannot provide real-time or location-specific information, including a list of home health agencies within a specific radius with hourly rates. Home health agency ratings and pricing vary widely depending on your location and other factors.”

Instead, it pointed me to the steps I could take to find these places, such as an online search, asking friends, checking their reviews on Yelp, Google Reviews, or the Better Business Bureau (BBB), contacting your health insurance company, and other approaches.

I tried the same prompt with Bard (Google’s AI) and Bing Chat. Bard was able to provide specific facilities, but could not tell me anything about the hourly rates.

Prompt 7:  “Send me a list of Medicaid-approved assisted living facilities within 10 miles.”

In response to Prompt 7, it also declined to provide specific facilities. It did, however, provide steps for approaching my search, which I did not find as helpful as it could be.

There were apparent suggestions, such as entering critical terms into an online search with the key term ‘Medicaid approved’ or ‘Medicaid certified, or directly contacting facilities to ask. They also named some of the more popular senior care directories – most of which get kickbacks from facilities for promoting them and are not the most objective source.

Other recommendations, such as the ones below, were more limited.

Medicaid Case Managers

In reality, ‘ Medicaid case managers’ are not even a ‘thing’ as most people typically don’t hold this precise title.

Instead, the role of understanding Medicaid is a responsibility that is part of a wide range of positions and fields, many of whom don’t even work in the State’s designated Medicaid office, and can include case workers, social workers, hospital discharge planners, nurses, and many more.

These professionals can work in community or healthcare settings and have some degree of understanding of Medicaid eligibility in your state and knowledge of the application process and can aid with your search.

Your State’s Website

ChatGPT also suggested going to your State’s Medicaid website for a listing of facilities. Have you ever been on your State’s website? Finding a listing of facilities is usually specific to their Medicaid long-term care or waiver program, and is often out-of-date or seems to be top-secret.

Your Local Aging and Disability Resource Center

It also recommended reaching out to their local Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC), which may have a listing of facilities, but does not track which facilities have open beds or accepts Medicaid.

Senior Living Advisors

They suggested reaching out to a ‘Senior Living Advisor” to get objective guidance. As far as I’m aware, these advisors exist only at specific facilities and hence, are incentivized to recruit you to their facility. Otherwise, persons in these roles provide virtual assistance to those navigating online senior care directories.

Most often Senior Living Advisors work for a commission. Overall, not the best advice that we’d offer our readers.

Prompt 8: “Can you give me a list of useful caregiver apps to help me manage caregiving tasks?”

Surprisingly, for Prompt 8,  it was able to produce a lengthy list of 20 caregiver apps and gave me a one-line description of each.

When I followed up with “Can you share the average ratings for each of the 20  caregiver apps you shared?” it gave me a disclaimer that it did not have real-time access to this data and referred me to the Google Play and the Apple App store to get the latest reviews.

Interestingly, many of the apps the AI found were different than those we previously reviewed.

This highlights a difference in AI versus human content – as our list focused on apps that could be helpful for caregivers, regardless of their intended audience. In contrast, the AI focused on apps specifically designed for caregivers or seniors. 

Resources and Services Prompt Ideas

• Tell me about the types of services that can help caregivers.
• Give me more details about adult day programs and how to pay for them.
• Give me a list of financial assistance programs that can help caregivers.
• Give me a list of financial assistance programs that can help caregivers in [YOUR STATE].
• How can caregivers get paid to support loved ones in [YOUR STATE]? (because these are state-specific)
• What types of assistive devices does Medicare cover and how do I get authorization or submit a claim?

Legal and Financial Guidance

Legal and financial topics are interesting areas to consider, yet AI may be able to help with the following (and other topics):

• Provide information on legal documents such as power of attorney and advance directives.
• Offer guidance on managing the financial aspects of caregiving.

Legal and financial matters are the areas that I’d be the most cautious with. Guidance will vary for state taxes, and always check the IRS website for updates.

If anything, AI provides a starting point and helps you understand whether your next steps are with your local courts, a financial advisor, or gathering your documents.

Prompt 9: “My mom lives with me. Can I write off her expenses on my 2023 taxes?”

While ChatGPT gave the disclaimer that ‘it’s not an expert” and to “consult with a qualified tax professional or CPA ” to provide more personalized information, it went on to provide a surprisingly useful, detailed response to Prompt 9.

It provided the qualifying criteria, the income and support test, the relationship requirements, and filing status, and noted that you can deduct medical expenses and even a home office deduction. This information would be enough to get you started with your tax research.

Prompt 10: “For a parent with dementia, do I need a Power of Attorney, Conservatorship, or Guardianship, in order to help manage their medical care and finances?”

For Prompt 10, ChatGPT explained the difference between these legal documents and their appropriate circumstances very well.

Legal and Financial Prompt Ideas

• Can a sibling revoke power of attorney?
• Is power of attorney needed when a parent has dementia?
• Can a parent with dementia revoke their power of attorney?
• What is the look-back period for Medicaid [YOUR STATE] to get coverage for a long-term care facility?
• In what circumstances is an adult child responsible for paying their parent’s medical bills?
• What are my options if I am evicted from senior housing in [YOUR STATE]?
• Can my loved one be legally kicked out of a nursing home in [YOUR STATE]?

Problem-Solving and Communication

AI can provide useful information about problem-solving and communication. This may be one of the most useful areas, as it taps into the creative strengths of AI. Here are some interesting areas to consider:

• Assist in problem-solving related to caregiving challenges and obstacles.
• Offer creative solutions to address specific caregiving issues.
• Offer advice on effective communication with healthcare professionals and family members.
• Provide tips on communicating with the care recipient, especially in cases of cognitive decline.

Prompt 11: “How can I convince my parent with urinary incontinence to wear adult diapers?”

To the first prompt, ChatGPT gave me a laundry list of areas to cover, which can serve as a good starting point to pinpoint what could be at the root cause of your loved one’s hesitation to use adult diapers.

It did not address situations in which the individual may have Alzheimer’s or dementia (then again, dementia and incontinence is a huge topic with many complexities). That may call for a specific, separate prompt or follow-up.

It offered tips such as choosing the right time and place for such discussion, empathy, and listening to their concerns.

It covered the importance of highlighting the benefits and options and their practicality and proposing a trial period – all things that I suspect many would’ve already attempted. This answer fell short of concrete steps for convincing someone who refuses to wear them.

Prompt 12: “How do I ask my brother to help my mom more, so I don’t carry the entire caregiving load?”

As for getting tips to get a sibling to assist with caregiving, I’d say it was “okay.” It covered the usual suspects and some helpful pointers. The text points to how to request caregiving assistance from a sibling. It emphasizes the importance of being specific about tasks and responsibilities, setting realistic expectations, offering support and collaboration, exploring concerns or hesitations, proposing solutions, being patient, and following up after the conversation.

It also suggests seeking mediation or professional help if the conversation becomes difficult or unproductive.

However, as we’ve discovered on caregiving forums and our research into caregiving and siblings, this topic is incredibly complex. There is often resentment on both sides of the equation and siblings who haven’t been helping up to now may not be willing to simply step up when asked.

Problem-Solving and Communication Prompt Ideas

• What do caregiving forums say about getting a senior to wear adult diapers? (Bing Chat provides the best answers to this question)
• What are some creative solutions to a wandering senior with dementia?
• Give me a list of problem-solving approaches for an angry aging parent.
• Give me the most powerful communication strategies for a parent with late stage dementia.
• What are some alternate therapies for addressing difficult behaviors in seniors with dementia as opposed to resorting to medications?

Managing Work and Caregiving Tasks

Prompt 13: “What can I do to save time while caring for my elderly mother and working full-time?”

The prompt to save time gave me 15 solid suggestions, which are valuable approaches to more effective caregiving, including leveraging technology, exploring local community resources and support groups, seeking employer support, consulting an elder law attorney for legal and financial planning, modifying the home environment, suggesting adaptive equipment and home modifications, and stress management tips.

One could follow up with questions about employee rights in the workplace related to caregiving, look up types of flexible jobs one could do from home, or look up specific programs that pay caregivers in their state to care for their family members.

Prompt 14: “What are some ideas for managing my Dad’s 10 medications more effectively.”

Prompt 14 could naturally follow one of the suggestions received in Prompt 13. Chat GPT did go deeper in providing specific ways to manage medications more effectively. As with other responses here, there was a lack of visuals, making the information a little less helpful.

Given the experience with earlier prompts, don’t expect to get a list of specific products or apps for medication management.

Planning and Time Management Prompt Ideas

• Give me a list of books that provide insights into time management for caregivers.
• What are the best organization and planning apps for caregivers?
• Tell me about employee rights in relation to caregiving and the need for time off.

Emotional Support & Self-Care

This is an interesting topic and there are a variety of ways that ChatGPT can help, including the following:

• Offer a listening ear and engage in empathetic conversations.
• Provide emotional support and stress management tips.
• Share coping strategies for dealing with caregiver burnout and guilt.

Prompt 15: “My mother’s health has worsened, and she shouldn’t live alone anymore but has limited resources. I feel guilty because I don’t want her to move in with us – with my husband and kids. I work full-time and don’t see how I could care for her while managing everything else. What can I do?”

ChatGPT caregiver guilt and offered practical tips for openly communicating with the caregiver’s mother about their limitations, evaluating their well-being, and seeking caregiver support groups.

It suggested exploring other care options (e.g., nursing homes, ALFs,s), getting other family members to help, seeking respite care, and tapping into community resources. It pointed me to elder law attorneys and Geriatric Care Managers, both expensive but helpful for those with the means.

The list was vague, but as with all prompts, you can follow up with any specific item and request a more in-depth response.

Prompt 16: “I’m at my wit’s end and burned out from caregiving. My dad is resistant to any help and doesn’t listen. What should I do?”

The second prompt had a similar broad with cursory responses. These touched on many vital aspects of potential solutions, without delving too much into each, such as focusing on self-care, getting respite care, understanding her father’s condition, having respect and empathy, and more.

The caregiver is given a glimpse into numerous factors to consider, but examples are not given, nor does Chat GPT go into an in-depth explanation of the items raised.

Still, this is a helpful start for someone who is overwhelmed. They can follow up with these areas through more detailed prompts or look online.

Emotional Support and Self-Care Prompt Ideas

• Give me some unique self-care tips for caregivers.
• What are some good ways to organize time as a caregiver?
• Talk to me about caregiving as if you were my best friend.
• Why do I hate my elderly mother?

Safety and Home Modifications

Now we come to safety and home modifications, which is an area where advice can be very powerful. Potential topics to consider include:

• Offer advice on making the home environment safer for the care recipient.
• Suggest adaptive equipment and home modifications.

Prompt 17: “My father gets around in a wheelchair, inside and outside the home. What are some adaptive devices I can use to better care for him at home?”

This text output discusses the importance of adaptive devices for individuals who use wheelchairs to improve their quality of life. ChatGPT suggests various adaptive devices and modifications that can be used both inside and outside the home to enhance accessibility, mobility, and comfort for seniors.

These included adjusting the height of the mailbox, raising the toilet seat, using a shower chair and much more.

While the descriptions of each were short, brief sentences. These covered a wide range of places that caregivers can explore to modify their home and make it more accessible for their loved one, which in turn makes caregiving less cumbersome.

The ChatGPT response also highlights the significance of assessing the specific needs of the individual and consulting healthcare professionals or occupational therapists for guidance to ensure that any modifications comply with local building codes and safety standards.

You could potentially follow up with a prompt by room, such as “Show me ways to make my kitchen more accessible for someone in a wheelchair.” or ask ChatGPT “How to install pathway lightning in my house.” then you will get very step-by-step information and materials needed.

However, don’t expect to get much if you request a listing of recommended grab bars or specific adaptive garden tools for someone in a wheelchair. ChatGPT will only speak to what to look for in your search and how to go about your search, but not give you a list of specific products or reviews.

Home Modification Prompt Ideas

• How do I modify my [ROOM] to make it safer for a senior?
• Give me more details about accessible appliances for seniors.
• Give me more details about accessible stoves.

Food and Nutrition

Prompt 18: “Show me recipes to soft foods that seniors can eat.”

Listed ingredients and basic ingredients for six recipes that fit the criteria, such as creamy mashed potatoes, chicken and rice soup, baked salmon and more. They did not cite their sources, though.

You could also add specifics about a given cuisine or other parameters, such as quick and easy meals, those that only use certain kitchen gadgets, and incorporate other dietary restrictions.

ChatGPT appears to create recipes itself, making it a powerful tool for inspired cooking.

Still… because at least some of the recipes are AI generated, some of them may not taste as good as they sound. You’ll need to use your common sense to decide which recipes are worth trying.

Food and Nutrition Prompt Ideas

• Generate six ideas for low sodium meals for seniors that aren’t boring.
• Design a meal plan for a week of soft food for an elderly woman.
• Write three low sodium slow cooker recipes that take less than 30 minutes to prepare.
• Design a meal plan for a week for meals that are soft, low in carbs, and high in protein.
• What can I make for dinner? I only have [INGREDIENTS].

The Benefits AI for Caregivers

There were some clear benefits to the current form of ChatGPT, as well as some limitations. Let’s look at the benefits.

Inspiration

ChatGPT rarely provided complete answers to my questions (unless my questions were very simple). Instead, I often received lists of potential approaches that I could then dig into further.

For example, it gave me ideas about caregiving strategies, but only provided a paragraph or less of information on each one. Similarly, when I searched for caregiving apps – it gave me 20 apps and just a single sentence describing each.

This is a fantastic feature, as it provides information about what to look for next. Without using AI, you’d need to read dozens of blog posts for the same information and there would be a lot of repetition between them.

Basic Legal and Financial Advice

I was most surprised by its ability to provide helpful starter financial and legal guidance, even if the tips remained broad and carried appropriate disclaimers. Most people need help with where to start.

Once you have some ideas from ChatGPT, you’ll be able to dig further and will know some appropriate questions to ask professionals.

Ability to Produce a Care Plan

I was also pleased with its ability to produce a framework for a Care Plan. I can see the potential to make the Care Plans more relevant by including more details like medications and diagnoses (and their severity) in your prompts.

A healthcare provider would need to review these, of course, but it is a good start if you are looking to get organized about what may be involved in your loved one’s care and need to communicate it to a group of caregivers.

Limitations of AI to Watch Out For

It’s important to note that while ChatGPT can offer valuable information and support, it should not replace professional medical advice or consultation.

Family caregivers should consult with healthcare professionals for specific medical issues and seek support from local organizations and support groups for personalized assistance.

They can also scour our library of specific, focused articles.

It Isn’t Always Accurate

AI tools pull data from a large number of online sources, then compiles this information to provide answers for readers.

While this approach provides AI with much of its power, there are also limitations.

For one thing, information online often isn’t accurate.

AI tools seem to be able to distinguish between accurate and inaccurate information to some degree. However, they don’t always get things right.

For example, I often use AI for nutrition topics that I’ve already been researching, largely to see if it has any different insights or perspectives I haven’t considered. Yet, every so often the AI gets fairly basic information wrong or misunderstands what an author has written.

Because of this, it’s crucial to double check anything AI tells you.

May Miss Unusual Perspectives and Nuances

Because AI is looking at a large number of sources and creating averaged results, it’s likely to miss any unusual perspectives or nuances.

For example, I’ve seen AI written content for caregiving that covers the basics of caregiving tasks and self-care, without enough depth about any of them and without considering enough complexities.

Doesn’t Provide Specific Product Lists

I was most disappointed by its inability to generate concrete lists of specific assistive devices, Medicaid assisted living facilities in my area, or cancer caregiver support groups.

Instead, it offered steps for acquiring that information, some of which I found to be questionable, biased, or unreliable sources.

This limitation varies a little depending on the specific chat AI you choose (more on this shortly). However, some limitations are likely to remain regardless.

It’s A Starting Point

Overall, ChatGPT can be helpful as a first broad look at a caregiving challenge and get a pulse on the situation but you will need numerous prompts to get in-depth, relevant guidance.

What’s more, it doesn’t replace the intensive research involved in acquiring detailed information on local resources, housing, any contact information, reviews, or even URLs for resources.

This means you’ll need to keep digging to learn more. That includes looking outside of AI sources, as some of the information AI provides could be inaccurate or incomplete. 

Remember too that AI tools don’t have human creativity, insight, or common sense. Because of this, even the best tools don’t interpret information the way that humans do. This effect may make some AI responses much less helpful.

Getting Started with ChatGPT

ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI and can be found here. You need to create an account to get started, although the tool itself is free to use.

The best starting point is to simply experiment. Play around with different questions, including the sample ideas that ChatGPT provides.

Don’t stress too much about specific phrasing either. You can generally just write as if you were talking to a person and the tool will understand you.

Other Types of AI

Finally, this article has focused on my experiences with ChatGPT, but ChatGPT is one of many AI options. Others include Microsoft’s Bing Chat (previously called Bing AI) and Google’s Bard.

These services function in the same way and have most of the same features. However, there are differences.

For example, when I asked Bing Chat about grab bars for a 160 lb woman, it was able to provide specific product recommendations. Neither of the other services did this.

So, if one chatbot doesn’t give you enough information, you could try turning to another.