One of the biggest timesavers for me when my dad was in the hospital was to create a CarePages website for him. I was able to post updates on how he was doing and then send them to anyone who wanted information. It was much easier than making a million phone calls a day, especially since I had other things to take care of for my father. The site would send an update email to anyone on my invite list and they could then logon to see the update. I have friends who have set up this type of website either for themselves or for friends suffering from a serious illness.
I particularly like this site because people can also send you messages and you can add photos. When I was pregnant with my triplets, this site was invaluable for letting people know how the babies and I were doing. It was also fun to post pictures of me growing!
CarePages, as well as many similar care coordination websites, has different settings to set up privacy settings. You can set your page up so that only those you invite can participate and logon, your page can be public, or you can choose something in-between. You can also connect with other people going through similar issues.
Another aspect of helping those dealing with illness, pregnancy, etc. is lining up meals, volunteers, errands, etc. One of my friends used Lotsa Helping Hands for a friend of hers who was battling cancer. I also set up a page on there for my father, so that we could make sure he would have visitors when he began rehab. I like that this website lets you set up a variety of tasks that people can help with, not just bringing meals. It also sends reminders to anyone who signs up to do a task/job. Like CarePages, you can also post announcements/updates and photos. This is a feature that I was not aware of, otherwise I would have used just this site alone to post everything for my father!
Other similar websites include:
- CaringBridge – This is similar to CarePages; its focus is on posting updates and news on a person’s condition. It is very easy to use.
- meal Train
- CareCalendar
- Take Them a Meal
- MealBaby
- Food Tidings
- CaringMeals
All of these care coordination websites are great because they:
- Are free.
- Allow you to get in touch with many people in a short-time. They saves everyone time (no matter if you are the subject of the site or the person coordinating care, visits, meals, etc.). This can be a big help if you are a coordinator of meals for your temple or church.
- Work for births, illness or injuries, bereavement, etc.
- Allow family, loved ones, friends, and others to send support and encouragement to the person in need.
- Often can direct you to support groups, information, and other pages set up by people with similar needs.
- Link with Facebook and other social networking programs.
Related posts on doing good for others:
- “Declutter responsibly”
- “Don’t throw out your expired coupons!”
- “Finding a home for used stuffed animals”
If you have used any of these sites and have reviews or tips, please share in the Comments section!
Surviving on a tight budget 
I started a Lotsa Helping Hands site for our community for meals for births and all the other things in life (please only simchas!) We have over 200 members, BH, and we’ve had a very good experience so far.
What a great idea? I would love to hear details on how you did that for your entire community? I did a community Purim megillah reading last year on my blog and that was just me getting information from all the shuls. I cannot imagine coordinating a larger effort!
For LHH,I sent invitations out to people I knew, and spread the word on the lists and as people needed meals. Anyone who responds can join. We have kashrut standards laid out and then when someone needs meals, we post an announcement – the site sends an e-mail to everyone who is signed up. Usually, the meals fill up pretty quickly, but if they are lagging, then we do a little more legwork to find people.
I chose a few people who often coordinate meals for people to help run it. Any one of us three can set up a meal “task,” and then we all monitor who is signing up. If none of us know someone, we just check in on them to maintain kashrut standards. But it mostly runs itself!
It used to be that people who find someone to coordinate their chesed meal and provide them with names, and then the coordinator would do a lot of legwork to find people to cover them. Now, it’s much easier for everyone–you can even see what other people brought to prevent too much repetition. It’s been a real blessing for our community.