Three group chats become one overview
Mum's appointments, the shopping runs, who has this week, and the number for home care — gathered on one page you can share. No account, no app, nothing about her health.
Takes about two minutes. You can close the tab and pick it up later.
OVERVIEW FOR MUM — week of 8 Sep On duty: Kate Next week: Tom Appointments Tue 9 Sep 11:00 GP, Kate goes along Thu 11 Sep 09:30 Home care visit Regular tasks Shopping — Wednesdays — on duty Laundry — Sundays — Tom Call Home care 020 7946 0000 GP 020 7946 0122 Pharmacy 020 7946 0344
Want to support Søskenhjelp?
Everything here is free, and that is completely fine. It costs us nothing beyond being on our server, so it costs you nothing.
Want to chip in anyway? It goes straight to keeping these tools free for everyone. Pick an amount, or write your own.
It's rarely a lack of will. It's a lack of overview.
Most siblings want to help. What wears people down is that nobody knows what the others have done. The GP appointment is in one chat, the shopping list in another, and the number for home care is on a note at whoever lives closest. So one of you ends up holding all of it, without anyone ever deciding that.
Søskenhjelp does one thing: it puts it all in one place everyone can see, and writes down who is responsible this week. The rest — the conversations, the visits, the hard parts — is still yours.
How it works
Write down what you already know
Your siblings' names, the regular appointments, the shopping day, and the phone numbers for home care, the GP and the pharmacy. Nothing about her health.
Get a ready-made duty rota
You take turns week by week, in the order you choose. Nobody has to ask whose turn it is.
Share it in the family chat
You get the overview as plain text you can paste straight into the chat you already use, or print and put on the fridge.
Four things, not forty
An overview full of fields never gets filled in. This one has what you actually argue about.
The task list
Shopping, laundry, bins, paperwork, lifts. One list everyone sees, instead of three threads nobody scrolls back through.
The appointments
GP, dentist, check-ups, home care visits. Date, time and who goes along.
The duty week
Who has this week. It rotates by itself and is written down, so nobody has to remember it for the others.
The contact card
Home care, the GP, the pharmacy and your contact person at the care service in one place, with phone numbers you can actually ring.
We never ask about her health
Søskenhjelp is a logistics tool. We don't ask for diagnoses, medication lists or medical notes, and we have no reason to hold them. The overview you make stays in your own browser until you choose to share it.
Read more on the privacy page.
The overview on paper
This week's fridge sheet, the duty calendar for the next 12 weeks and a phone card for by the phone — put together from the overview you've already filled in, ready to print.
The paperwork and the phone calls, not just the calendar
What wears people down is rarely the visits. It is being the only one who knows what the council said, which reference number the application got, and what the bank told you in March. The overview now keeps one line per call: the date, who you spoke to, what was agreed and the reference number — the elder care admin, written down where your siblings can read it.
Plus a one-page handover sheet that gives a sibling everything they need to take over a week.
Make your overview — freeWhen you need more than a list
Short guides to what siblings actually wonder about when Mum or Dad starts needing help.
Organising paperwork for an elderly parent
Keeping track of Mum's appointments and tasks
When caring for a parent wears you out
Families and home care: who talks to whom
When siblings disagree about caring for Mum or Dad
How to share the responsibility between siblings
Responsibility for your parents as they grow old
Questions we get
Does it cost anything?
No. The overview, the printable sheets and the guides are all free, and you don't need an account. It costs us nothing beyond being on our server, so it costs you nothing. If you'd like to chip in anyway, there's a button for that on the front page.
Do my siblings need to download an app?
No. Everything happens in the browser on your phone. You share the overview as text in the chat your family already uses, so nobody has to install anything to read it.
Do you store information about Mum or Dad?
No. We never ask for diagnoses, medication, medical records or any other health information, and the overview you fill in stays in your own browser. We don't see it.
What if we already have a shared calendar?
Then you've solved half the problem. What's usually missing is the duty week and the contact card — who is responsible right now, and which number to ring. Keep the calendar and use the overview for the rest.
There are three of us and we disagree about how much each should do. Does this help?
It doesn't settle the disagreement, but it makes it visible. Once the tasks and the weeks are written down, you're talking about a list rather than about each other. That's usually an easier conversation.
Start with this week
You don't need to have everything ready. Write down what you know now, share it in the chat, and let your siblings fill in the rest.
Make your overview — freeOther things we've made
Also for families keeping the everyday coordinated between them.
Also for families keeping the everyday coordinated between them.
Also for families keeping the everyday coordinated between them.
Also in Norwegian, made by the same people.