Caregiver Personas Tool

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.

Take the Caring Hearts Caregiver Personas Quiz to find out your caregiver type.

In It Together, as a Family

When a family teams up to address family caregiving challenges, there are bound to be multiple perspectives on how to help.

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

Tap a persona below to explore its characteristics, or take our personality quiz to discover your own persona.

A Planner caregiver personality type taking notes on elderly care tasks

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

An example of the Camp Director family caregiver persona speaking with elderly father

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 and the Dreamer
  • Tension risk 
    • The Doer
  • Downfall
    • Depends heavily on others

Caregiver persona example: The Doer often takes care of daily senior care tasks

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 and the Dreamer
  • Tension risk 
    • The Camp Director
  • Downfall
    • Focus on the short term may lead to missing long-term challenges
    • Often feels resentment 

A Dreamer caregiver type always stays positive in difficult family senior care situations

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 and Camp Director
  • Tension risk 
    • The Planner
  • Downfall
    • Often oblivious to impending crises

A Rescuer Caregiver type is often a long-distance caregiver

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 and Planner
  • Tension risk 
    • The Camp Director and Doer
  • Downfall
    • Tends to undervalue work already done by other family members

Caregiver Personality Quiz

Think you know which persona matches your personality? Take the Caregiver Personality Quiz to find out!

Take The Quiz

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 chart helps illustrate how each persona interacts with others:

Chart explaining how different Sibling Caregiver Personas interact with one another

Next Steps

  1. Share with your care team. Encourage your siblings, friends, and other caregiver team members to explore this tool and take the Caregiver Personas Quiz.
  2. Print out our Caregiver Personas Guide. Use the free PDF at the link below as both a handy resource and a discussion guide for planning care that will keep Mom or Dad living safely and independently at home. This framework is meant to help families open a dialogue and see things from another point of view.

Remember: When family caregivers work successfully with all members, everyone – including the senior loved one, most importantly – will benefit.

Download the FREE Caregiver Personas Guide

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