Family Care Map

A Care Map is simply a drawing, a visual representation of a family’s care network.

  • Everyone can create their own care map. It is not specific to caregivers and families of complex children.
  • A care map can include people, pets, professionals and places and their relationships of care.
  • A care map can give families new insights about their own personal situation, their relationships and can support the development of new skills and comfort in speaking with others about care.

Would creating a Care Map be helpful for you?

If you answer “yes” to any of the following questions, you may find that creating a Care Map could be a useful tool. If you are interested, bring it up with your healthcare provider(s).

For families:

  • Are you having difficulty navigating and understanding who does what within the health, community and social care systems?
  • Are you feeling overwhelmed with multiple appointments and care teams?
  • Are you feeling that you have multiple and/or competing priorities and not enough help? 
  • Are you having challenges with coordinating your child’s care?
  • Are you and your child experiencing various/multiple transitions from one service to another?  (eg: hospital to home, home to daycare, new to school, child to adult, etc…)

For healthcare providers:

  • Do you understand the families and child’s care situation and who is all involved in care?
  • Are there multiple clinics and care teams involved in the child’s care?
  • Are there multiple systems involved in the child’s care?  Eg.  Health, Community, Education, Social
  • Is the family having trouble navigating and coordinating their child’s care?
  • Is the family having trouble prioritizing care?
  • Is the family or will the family experience various/multiple transitions?

Video

 

Templates

You can create different style of care maps depending on the reason for the map. Here are some sample templates:

Examples & Additional resources: