Caregiving comes with its own unique set of challenges and complexities but caregivers are never entirely on their own. Instead, there are a variety of tools out there that can make caregiving easier and can help resolve specific issues that you may face.
One of these is the Talking Parents mobile app. This is an app-based service, designed to help keep track of important conversations so that you have them on hand in the future. A key aspect of this concept is preventing future litigation, although there are other implications as well.
The focus is specifically designed for separated parents. However, it can be relevant in the case of caregiving as well – especially if you have multiple family members involved in the process.
What Is Talking Parents?
The company behind Talking Parents describes the concept like this:
The idea is that individuals communicate with one another through the app and don’t have the ability to remove or alter anything they have previously said. As a result, the app provides an accurate log of communications, which can then be retrieved and printed.
The features include the ability to view all past conversations, along with notifications about when new messages are received and when they are viewed.
The app itself is free and it seems that all of the services were free at one point. However, the cost has recently changed and members do need to pay monthly access to the premium version to be able to print conversations out. The cost seems to be around $5 per month – which isn’t an extreme amount, especially if you need the security that Talking Parents offers.
In fairness, many of the same features are available through standard messaging apps.
However, one of the biggest differences is that messages through services like Facebook or Skype can be deleted or edited. They may also become inaccessible in some situations, such as if someone deletes their account or blocks the other person.
Even if none of those issues happen for a given situation, they make evidence from such services untrustworthy. In contrast, Talking Parents has been considered the ‘gold standard’ in some situations as a method of communication and ensuring that disputes are avoided.
How Talking Parents Can Help Caregivers
Talking Parents is a messaging service, so it’s only useful for keeping a track of electronic messages. Additionally, both parties have to be willing to use it and need to be consistent about doing so. So, how does it help caregivers?
Well, it probably won’t help you with the person that you’re caring for.
After all, in most cases you’d be talking to them, not messaging them. Plus, many seniors wouldn’t be able or willing to talk about sensitive information via an online messaging service.
But, the service can be particularly relevant for communicating about caregiving, especially with other family members. The additional security the app offers may even be critical in this situation – because discussions about caregiving can often be sensitive and can easily lead to conflict.
Likewise, there are important topics that often need to be talked about, including finances and advance planning. Having a record of such conversations may be extremely beneficial. That’s even more true for any families where issues often arise.
Talking Parents Reviews
The concept behind Talking Parents is extremely appealing, especially if there are areas of potential conflict. The site for the service also looks high-quality, which is encouraging.
Nevertheless, actual reviews of the Talking Parent mobile app aren’t that encouraging. For example, the rating for the paid version on Google Play looks like this:
Needless to say, that distribution of Talking Parents mobile app reviews is a major problem, especially when you’re meant to be using the app for storing critical information and having important conversations. If it is unreliable, then there seems to be little point in using it.
Now, in fairness, apps tend to update over time, so any issues may be resolved in the future.
What’s more, many of the negative reviews aren’t actually helpful. For example, some of the 1-star reviews come from people who don’t like the cost. To me, this is very unproductive – as you just shouldn’t use something if you don’t approve of the cost.
But, even though many of the negative reviews aren’t legitimate, there are still some that are. As a result, it is clear that the app is unreliable and doesn’t work all of the time.
All that being said, not everyone has issues. Instead, there are some positive reviews, including people who rely on the app.
So, if nothing else, it may be worth trying out and seeing if it works well enough for your needs.
Alternatives to Talking Parents
The underlying concept of Talking Parents is an interesting one – even if the app itself isn’t that reliable. A second service that offers something similar is Our Family Wizard, which is also designed with separated parents in mind.
These services also highlight the importance of keeping records of conversations, especially ones that are on important topics.
Doing so isn’t just relevant for conversations with other family members either. Instead, you may need to do so for some discussions with the person that you’re caring for.
This may be particularly important for talking about areas like finances, insurance or end of life care. Likewise, many seniors experience issues with memory or may have symptoms of dementia. Those situations make recording information particularly important and the information may be critical later on.
One simple approach would be to record verbal conversations and there are many apps out there to do so. Nevertheless, it is always best to obtain verbal consent to ensure there are no legal issues down the road.
In some cases, writing things down or filling out forms can help as well. However, with anything critical, it’s important to talk to a legal advisor and figure out what you can and cannot legally do, along with what the best practices are.
At present, there don’t seem to be any apps like Talking Parents that specifically target the challenges that caregivers face. Or, if they exist, they certainly aren’t well marketed. But, it’s clear that the demand is present.
In the meantime, finding some approaches for recording important conversations is important – regardless of whether you do so verbally, through a messaging system or by writing things down.
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