For many years I have case management services for a variety of people with disabilities. The disabilities have ranged from mental health issues to physical disabilities. My role as a social worker and case manager has ranged from providing counseling services myself to making referrals to providers in the community. One of the major challenges is teaching people to be responsible with keeping their appointments and also the appointments of their children. For many people with mental health issues small things in life becoming overwhelming so it is difficult for them to keep track of what they need to do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
I used to help with time management skills by supplying clients with appointment books. This was only partially successful because it was difficult for many of the clients to keep track of their appointment books. I then switched to providing monthly calendars for clients so they could have them on their refrigerators. I found printable monthly calendars that I could put already scheduled appointments on and then the clients could write additional appointments on them as they came up through the month. This worked out much better. Having the printable monthly calendars for each client was any easy way for me to make sure I was including my monthly meeting with the client as well as any court dates or counseling appointments the client may have. It was also great because I could keep a copy of the printable monthly calendar in the case file so I had easy documentation of events for preparing reports. The clients liked the calendars because they were portable for them to take to appointments with them. I would make sure that there was space in the bottom for them to write future appointment on. When they would get their new calendar each month they would transfer the information from the old calendar onto the new one. As clients progressed with their abilities to keep track of their schedule I would show them how to access the printable monthly calendar on line so they could start doing this for themselves. It is also ways my goal to help people become as self sufficient as possible. This is just one way of helping them accomplish this.
I started to use the printable monthly calendars at my home to keep track of my childrens activities and appointments. My husband and kids would add events onto the calendar so we would all know what each others schedule was for any given day or week. It is a great way to improve communication in busy families.