HACKER Q&A
📣 xrd

Self-hosted task mgmt software for managing transition to elder care?


My friend's dad was in an assisted living facility for the last year. About five months ago, his dad had a health crisis and the last five months have been hell for my friend as his dad has spiraled, going in and out of ER, rehab and in and out of his assisted living facility. My friend has been unable to think about what the longer term plans are because his days are spent with his dad trying to manage his "ICU delirium" and the impact of all the hospitalization and paperwork and coordination to keep him alive. It seems like the best next step is to get him into a VA facility or similar where they are equipped to manage his health needs.

I've offered to help organize the conversations between his relatives and others who want to help, but are not very organized about it. They are well intentioned but the extra level of managing a bunch of email threads are stressing out my friend more than they are helping. I am terrified this might become a huge set of email threads with important information buried behind sympathetic "I'm so sorry" statements and emotional but worthless chatter.

Does anyone know of a good self-hosted and simple task management tool that I can use to corral all this information?

My needs as I can imagine them now:

  * Single list of tasks, no need to link tasks or have special features, etc.
  * Easily close a task, but still see it?
  * Email updates/subscription? Maybe I don't need this?
  * Works on mobile and desktop
  * Easily add pictures to a task
  * SQLite backend? I use dokku for hosting stuff, so postgres or mariadb would be fine if that's best.
  * No need to hack or modify, so simple setup is more important than the language or long term plans for the codebase.
  * No need to for auth: I can put all this behind a simple http basic auth password, so I don't think I need to worry about users or any of that.
Thanks for your help in advance.

  👤 brudgers Accepted Answer ✓
get him into a VA facility or similar where they are equipped to manage his health needs

If that's the goal, then the best course of action is to get the paperwork started.

That has to be done by the patient themselves or someone with durable power of attorney to act on their behalf in healthcare matters. Nobody can do that for them. Nobody can force them to go into a home without a long legal process to curtail the patient's rights.

While the Veteran's Administration has a array of services that may be available, eligibility criteria vary widely depending on when and where a person served and whether or not they have a service connected disability. It is a vast bureaucracy...For what it is worth, "Veterans Homes" are not part of the VA. They are typically run at the state level, like all facilities their are waiting lists whose length depends on desirability.

None of the big issues are going to be solved by an app and no app will clean up feces. The myriad practical issues require meat space assistance. Money often works here...e.g. hired assistance and outsourcing. But again, this requires consent of your friend's dad.

Most people are not able to offer sustained help to a non-family member over a long period for reasonable emotional, physical, and financial reasons. And we know that healthcare is a job often only done well by professionals.

Good luck.