“My mom was diagnosed with COPD.”

“What’s COPD?”

“It’s Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder.”

“Oh… What’s Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder?”

“Not sure, but my friend’s mom had it.”

This type of conversation happens every day in homes, coffee shops, offices, restaurants. It’s always other people who have a loved one with a chronic illness like COPD or heart failure until your loved one is diagnosed with it. Like anything else, these terms can be scary when not understood properly. Family caregivers can play a huge role in managing the disease and helping a loved one get healthy again when equipped with the right tools and information.

COPD Care Team resources

CareTogether.com offers condition-specific education material for COPD, Pneumonia, and Heart Failure. Over the next few months, we’ll add more resources for conditions like diabetes, Acute Myocardial Infarction (heart attack), delirium, and more. We pulled these resources from BrightStar Care’s new clinical program, “BrightStar Clinical Pathways.” This evidenced-based team-oriented program is based on clinically proven methods to reduce hospital readmissions for people with chronic illness.

The CareTogether resources include condition definitions to help you understand your loved one’s condition, symptom calendars to help you track your loved one’s progress, medication definitions, and more. Studies show that involved, informed caregivers help reduce hospital readmissions and improve quality of life.

To access these downloadable resources for COPD, Pneumonia, and Heart Failure, select those terms from either the Settings tab or Resources. When selected, the downloadable PDFs will appear on the right column of Resources, under the heading “Care Team Resources.”

Combined with the calendar function, task lists, and journaling, these condition-specific resources make CareTogether a unique and powerful tool that empowers caregivers to provide compassionate and informed support for their loved ones.