Caregiver Personas Tool
Learn What Kind of Caregiver You Are
There are moments of realization in everyone’s life. Times when you know things have changed forever and there’s no going back to “business as usual.” These are the moments when it’s most important to be surrounded by good friends and family members—and to be able to successfully work together. Seeking care assistance for a loved one is one of those moments.
In It Together, as a Family
When a loved one needs care, it becomes a family matter. When a family teams up to address caregiving challenges, there are bound to be multiple perspectives on how to help. Each person comes with differing experiences and perceptions as well as a different willingness to accept and participate in the care that is needed.
Drawing on our experience in helping manage family dynamics during home care engagements, we’ve come up with the following family caregiver personality types. By identifying personas in the group and shining a light on the parts played, families can each gain the confidence that they are all, in fact, in this together.
The 5 Caregiver Personas
Our Caregiver Personas free guide is meant to bring a smile – but also help you understand that each person contributes differently. All personas are valuable and meaningful. Explore the persona characteristics below or take our personality quiz to discover your own persona.
The Planner
- The Planner confronts challenges by logically thinking through the steps needed to address them.
- Skills: Organized, structured, anticipates practicalities, handles wills, POAs, insurance, etc.
- Complements: The Camp Director
- Tension Risk: The Dreamer
- Downfall: Planners’ ability to organize gives them a sense of security that works against the flexibility needed to handle unforeseen challenges
The Camp Director
The Camp Director is a natural peacemaker. He/she intuitively knows which siblings are best suited for which tasks.
- Skills: Project manager, assigns tasks and responsibilities, regular point of contact, keeps the team working together
- Complements: The Planner, The Dreamer
- Tension Risk: The Doer
- Downfall: Depends heavily on others
The Doer
When a task needs doing, The Doer is the care team member most often depended on to tackle it.
- Skills: Day-to-day task execution, keeps the machine humming, runs the errands, goes to appointments
- Complements: The Planner, The Dreamer
- Tension Risk: The Camp Director
- Downfall: Focus on the short term may lead to missing long-term challenges, often feels resentment
The Dreamer
The Dreamer's idealism shines in the face of adversity.
- Skills: The loved one’s advocate, wants best-case scenario, idealist in face of adversity
- Complements: The Doer, The Camp Director
- Tension Risk: The Planner
- Downfall: Often oblivious to impending crises
The Rescuer
The Rescuer is the long-distance caregiver who is usually not involved in the daily tasks of managing care.
- Skills: The crisis manager, often geographically distant, proposes alternate solutions, requires communication/consultation, doesn't always wears a cape
- Complements: The Dreamer, The Planner
- Tension Risk: The Camp Director, The Doer
- Downfall: Tends to undervalue work already done by other family members
Understanding Your Family’s Unique Dynamics
Once you’ve learned a bit about how your personality could affect your Caregiving style, think about the other members of your care team. With which family members could you collaborate best? Is there anyone you might clash with in certain circumstances?
This free guide helps illustrate how each persona interacts with others. Download it below.
Caregiver Personality QuizThink you know which persona matches your personality? Take the Caregiver
Personality Quiz to find out!
TAKE THE QUIZ