Personal Community Tutorial
Learn How and Why to Build a Personal Community
While providing care for a loved one has its rewards, it can also leave caregivers feeling overwhelmed and isolated. Yet there are often friends and colleagues who would like to offer their support to both the patient and the caregiver, but don’t know how to contribute.
A Personal Community is a tool to help bridge the gap between primary caregivers and those who would like to help. We created this private, secure website for our CareCommunity members so they and their loved ones have a practical way to get emotional and logistical support from their “personal community” of compassionate individuals.
The following are reasons you may want to create a Personal Community that includes friends, family members, or anyone who’s concerned about your and your loved one’s wellbeing.
Organize a caregiving team. Primary caregivers often try to manage their daily demands alone, which leaves them feeling burnt-out and isolated. A Personal Community will allow you to share the joys and burdens of caregiving with a group of concerned individuals you have chosen.
Make time for self-care. When you share caregiving with a group, you will be in a better position to care of your own physical and emotional well being. And healthy caregivers can provide higher quality care for their loved ones.
Keep friends, co-workers, neighbors, and family members involved and up-to-date. Your Personal Community can provide an easy way for you to communicate with those you care about, particularly those who live far away, without having to spend hours returning phone calls or replying to emails.
Have private discussions with community members in a centralized place. You can provide information about your loved one’s health condition, trade stories, photos, recipes, or post helpful information, like family dietary requests for those interested in assisting with meal preparation.
Coordinate care and request assistance with daily needs. Your personal community members can sign up for tasks such as providing transportation to medical appointments, helping with household chores, grocery shopping, respite care, or researching new treatments and trial studies.
Ask for help. Sometimes it’s hard to ask for help directly, even when someone asks, “What can I do to help?" When you request assistance with a specific task on the Personal Community (and remember, the request can be big or small), members can choose to help out in a non-pressured way, alleviating some of the awkwardness and reluctance caregivers feel in asking for support.
Give friends and family members an easy, manageable way to volunteer. Creating a Personal Community allows caregiving responsibilities to be shared among a group of people, so no one person feels overburdened. It also allows people to choose when and how they will help.
Allow members to creatively contribute. Often, caregivers and patients need more than just help with the basics like cooking, cleaning, and transportation. Perhaps a personal community member can provide spiritual guidance, give a yoga or meditation lesson, recommend a good book, plant a flower or tree, or just sit down and listen to you vent. Your community members will undoubtedly have a wide variety of experiences and skills that building a Personal Community can give you better access to.
Lower the financial costs of caregiving. Even for those who have insurance, health care expenses are still outrageous. Community members can pitch in by providing medical supplies or taking your loved one to a doctor’s appointment so you don’t have to miss a day of work.
Enjoy a free service. There is no charge for creating or maintaining a Personal Community.
Receive encouragement. Community members can post Well Wishes that offer words of comfort and inspiration when you need them most.
Give friends and family members the opportunity to educate themselves. Your Personal Community members will have access to CareCommunity’s articles and expert advice about a variety of caregiving topics such as how to properly lift a patient or how to manage medications. Reading our extensive caregiving information will enable your community members to better support you and your loved one.
Create Your Personal Community
When you’re ready to create a Personal Community, it’s easy to get started by following the simple steps below.
- Log in to CareCommunity with your username and password. (You must be a registered member in order to create a Personal Community.)
- Click on “My Personal Community” which is located on the left side of the Home Page.
- First, enter a name for your Personal Community. Many people name their Personal Community after the person receiving care such as “Grandpa Jim.”
- Next, you can select an image to represent your Personal Community. Choose one of your own or upload an image from our library. Please note that currently this is your only chance to add an image. If you choose not to, a blank profile image will appear at the top of the page.
- When you are ready, click on “Create My Personal Community.”
Congratulations
You have officially created a Personal Community and have now landed on your new private web page. Keep in mind that your Personal Community web page will give you prompts and help you through the process as you use each of its features, so it’s easy to learn as you go. However, the following is a Personal Community tutorial, offering detailed information about how and why to use each feature.
Invite New Members
The next step is to invite your friends, family members, neighbors, co-workers, and other acquaintances to join your Personal Community. You may find it helpful to brainstorm with someone close to you about people you could invite that may not initially come to mind. Care recipients could also have friends or former work associates they might like to invite as well. Follow the steps below to invite new members.
- Click on “Invite New Members” in the Member Center Box located on the bottom left of the page.
- Next, you will see two boxes. In the first box, enter email addresses of those you would like to invite. Please separate each email address with a comma.
- In the second box, you can type a message to be included with your invitation. Your welcome message may provide information about yourself, your family, and the person you are caring for. You may want to add some brief comments about your loved one’s health condition or why you decided to create a Personal Community.
- Then when you are ready, click “Send.”
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Use the Care Scheduler to assign tasks like grocery shopping. |
The Care Scheduler can help primary caregivers delegate tasks and responsibilities, therefore providing more time to focus on what’s important—caring for themselves and their loved ones. Perhaps a community member can pick up prescriptions, organize insurance paperwork, or simply spend time with the patient allowing the caregiver to take a break.
Consider adding a wide variety of activities to the scheduler that aren’t directly related to caregiving. You may request that someone mow the lawn, change the oil on your car, weed your garden, or tell you a funny story over a cup of coffee.
Once you have added tasks to the calendar, your Personal Community members can then choose which tasks they would like to be responsible for.
To add a task to the scheduler, follow these easy steps.
- Click on “Add New Task,” which is located beneath the calendar.
- In the first box, type as much information about the task as you can, such as “I need someone to drive my father to his oncologist’s appointment at the Seabury Medical Center in Newport.”
- Then enter information about the date and time in the next two boxes. When all the details have been added, click “Submit.”
- Next, you can either add another task or return to the Personal Community Main Page.
Clicking on “See All Tasks” will allow you to view each task you have added to the Care Scheduler. You can use this feature to edit or delete a task. For example, if a doctor’s appointment you requested transportation for has been changed, you can click “edit” and enter the new date and time.
Currently, CareCommunity will automatically send you an email to notify you when someone accepts a scheduled task, or if a community member is unable to complete a task that was already accepted. If you prefer not to receive these email alerts, then click on “Manage Email Settings.” Next, uncheck the two boxes on this page and click “Update.”
You and your Personal Community members can use this feature to communicate with each other and share important information. Primary caregivers can post messages about needed supplies such as a wheelchair, grab bars for the bathroom, or new bed linens.
You may also want to alert community members about food allergies or diet limitations your care recipient has. This is also the place to share ideas, stories, photos, poems, news articles, or words of encouragement. To use this feature, follow the steps below.
- First, click on “Care Discussions," located in the middle box at the bottom.
- To start a new discussion, click on “New Topic.”
- Once on this page, enter the title of your post in the subject line, and then begin typing your message in the larger box.
- When you are finished click “Update."
- To reply to someone else’s post, click on the title of their message and then hit “Reply.”
Post updates about your loved one's most recent doctor's appointment. |
Use this feature to keep your personal community members updated about your loved one’s health and family news. Primary caregivers may want to thank those who have gone above and beyond to help out, or inform members about a patient’s most recent medical check up. Unlike the Messages and Discussions feature, only the person who created the Personal Community can post updates.
- To add an update, click on “Post an Update.”
- Begin typing your update in the box.
- When you are ready to post, click “Update.”
In this portion of the site, your personal community members can post supportive messages and words of encouragement for you and the patient. Also, feel free to use this feature to reach out to your community members as well. You may want to thank a friend or family member who has gone above and beyond, or simply respond to the caring thoughts your community members have offered.
To post a Well Wish, follow the simple steps below.
1. Click on “Post a Well Wish.”
2. Type your Well Wish in the box.
3. When you are ready, click “Update.”
Personal Community members can use this feature to submit resources that others may find helpful such as relevant web articles, books, online journals, or information about support groups. To submit a resource, follow these steps.
- Click on “Suggest a Resource” located in the Private Resources box on the bottom right of the page.
- Then choose the correct resource type.
- Pick the category or categories this resource applies to. You can choose more than one category by holding down the “Ctrl” button on your keyboard as you click on each one.
- In the box beneath, you can enter any keywords that may make it easier for others to search for the resource. For example, if you are adding a web article about Alzheimer’s disease, you could enter key words like “dementia” or “brain disorders.”
- If you check the box beneath “Keywords” then your resource will only be displayed to your Personal Community members. Leaving this box unchecked will allow other users outside of your Personal Community to access this resource.
A Personal Community can help ease the strain put on primary caregivers by providing an easy way for friends and family members to get involved, stay connected, and share responsibilities. Please don’t hesitate to contact the community manager at
ccMgr@enclarahealth.com if you have any questions or concerns about creating or using a Personal Community. We are here to support you along your journey.