Daily Living and Routine Sheet

Who this is for

A person's ordinary day, written down for whoever is helping with it. Each row is a part of the day — morning through to night — with what usually happens, what help is needed, what the person likes and what to avoid, so a new carer or a relative covering can keep the day the way the person is used to.

Families handing over to a carer or an agency, carers new to a person, respite and residential settings settling somebody in, and anyone whose day goes better when it goes the usual way.

What this helps you track

• What usually happens at each part of the day, in the person's own routine
• What help is needed at each stage, described by the people who give it
• What the person likes — the cup, the chair, the radio, the order things go in
• What to avoid, and why, so that nobody finds out the hard way
• One page a stranger can read before they knock on the door

How to use it

1. Write the person's name, who wrote the sheet and the date at the top.
2. Take each part of the day in turn — the period names are printed; the times, if you want them, are yours to add.
3. Describe what usually happens in plain words: getting up, washing, meals, rest, visitors, television, bed.
4. Say what help is needed at each stage as the people who give it would describe it — the sheet has no view of its own about what anyone needs.
5. Fill in the likes and the things to avoid; these are the columns a new carer reads first.
6. Write it with the person if you can, and rewrite it when the routine changes rather than annotating an old one.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The online version keeps what you enter in your own browser and builds the completed PDF on your device.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Does the sheet say when things should happen?

No. It prints the parts of the day and nothing else — no clock times, no order and no idea of what a day ought to contain. Add times if they matter to the person, because they are theirs.

What goes under help needed?

Whatever the people who help would say if asked — a word for the amount and the kind of help, in their language. The sheet does not describe or grade anyone's needs; the care plan and the people who assessed them do that.

How is it different from the care and support plan?

The plan is the agreed document about needs and how they are met. This is the practical page beside it: what the day looks like, what the person likes and what to avoid, written so a stranger can follow it.

Should the person fill it in themselves?

If they can, or with them, yes. It is their day. Written by somebody else alone it tends to become what is convenient rather than what is usual.

What if the routine changes a lot?

Write the usual and note the exceptions at the bottom. If there is no usual, say so, and describe what helps on a good day and what helps on a bad one.