AI Tools Can Support Families Navigating Special Needs Care

Takeaways

• Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools can provide assistance to families who are caring for individuals with special needs by helping with performing tasks such as scheduling appointments and managing finances.
• AI applications such as ChatGPT can help with a wide range of writing and organizational tasks that may include drafting a letter of intent, creating personalized care plans, and tracking income and expenses.
• While AI may serve as a helpful tool, verifying the information it provides and recognizing its limitations is essential.
• For complex and nuanced special needs planning, consulting with a licensed special needs planning attorney is recommended over relying solely on AI.

Many families in the United States are navigating care for a loved one with special needs. According to the United States Census, a quarter of all households in the U.S. have a member with a disability. Twenty percent of children in the U.S. have special health care needs, the Annie E. Casey Foundation reports, and 7.5 million students nationwide receive special education services.

The responsibilities of caring for a loved one with a disability can bring a high level of stress, which, in turn, can take a toll on the family as a whole. The Child Mind Institute reports that the stress of caring for a child with special needs can lead to burnout, adverse health outcomes for caregivers, and marital strife.

And, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, fewer parents of children with special needs are in good health. Special needs families are also more likely to experience financial difficulties, leading to food insecurity and trouble paying for health care.

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to support these families, lessening the stress of caregiving by freeing up more time for caregivers. These emerging technologies could help families navigate health care and academic systems, coordinate care, and perform specific tasks. As this technology develops, its scope is likely to expand further.

Scheduling Appointments

Scheduling and remembering to attend appointments can be a significant task for caregivers of loved ones with disabilities. Coordinating medical visits with specialists, therapy sessions, and other essential appointments requires meticulous organization and time management. Remembering each appointment, along with its specific time, location, and any necessary preparations or paperwork, can be overwhelming, especially when managing multiple schedules. The need to arrange transportation, coordinate with other family members or caregivers, and ensure that all documentation and supplies are readily available further compounds the logistical challenges.

Meanwhile, unexpected appointments or cancellations can disrupt carefully planned schedules, adding to the stress and complexity of caregiving.

A number of AI tools have the potential to help make scheduling easier. You may consider using smart calendar apps to schedule routine appointments, such as doctors’ visits, therapies, and enrichment activities. These apps can also provide reminders, reschedule appointments when conflicts arise, and sync multiple calendars. For example, Reclaim.ai integrates with Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar, helping caregivers balance work and home responsibilities.

Managing Finances

The financial aspect of caregiving – such as budgeting therapies and managing Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for someone with a disability – can be complex. When a family member is the legal guardian of an adult with a disability, the court requires the guardian to maintain records of expenditures and submit an annual report.

If an adult receiving SSI lives at home, they may need to pay rent or else see a reduction in their benefits. When an individual is the beneficiary of a special needs trust and receives public benefits, determining what the trust is allowed to pay for without jeopardizing benefits for the disabled person can also take special considerations.

Artificial intelligence tools could help caregivers manage finances for someone with a disability, tracking income and categorizing expenses. Apps such as Mint and YNAB have AI-powered budget tracking tools that you may consider using for such tasks as outlining savings goals, budgeting for specialized therapies or respite care, and generating reports to understanding spending patterns.

Certain AI features could also help the individual with a disability take a more active role in their own financial planning. According to Special Needs Alliance, AI tools that could help people with disabilities include voice control, simplified interfaces, automated bill payment, smart reminders, and document reading apps.

Drafting Documents, Spreadsheets, and Plans

Artificial Intelligence that generates text can also help reduce caregiver workload for writing-intensive tasks, such as drafting a letter of intent or writing an email to a special education teacher.

ChatGPT is a large language model chatbot that can aid caregivers in completing certain tasks more efficiently. It generates relevant responses to text and can make spreadsheets, budgets, and written content. Free access is available, with paid access offering more advanced features.

This well-known AI tool can assist caregivers with writing, organizing information, and making spreadsheets. It can also serve as a starting point for research into topics relevant to caregiving, such as identifying or explaining public benefits programs for which the individual with a disability may be eligible.

Caregivers may consider seeking the help of ChatGPT with such tasks as the following:

• Drafting a Letter of Intent. A letter of intent is a nonlegal document that describes the preferences and needs of a person with a disability. ChatGPT can create a basic letter of intent template and prompt the caregiver through the process of adding key details.
  
  When tasked with writing a letter of intent, the free version of ChatGPT may ask for information about the individual, such as their family support system, medical history, and goals for the future. After the caregiver inputs details about the individual, ChatGPT can create a personalized letter of intent. This can help save time that would be spent writing and brainstorming.
• Creating a Personalized Care Plan. Users may opt to input information about their loved one’s medical history, past appointments and treatments, current symptoms, care goals, and lifestyle details. Once given this information, the tool can provide recommendations for follow-up appointments, monitoring and lab work, diet and lifestyle, and more.
• Tracking Income and Expenses for a Person with a Disability. ChatGPT can also be useful in outlining spreadsheets or printable templates to log income and expenses, building schedules or records of benefits payments, and setting up tracking reminders.
• Mapping Out Milestones and Identifying Public Assistance. Another option may be asking ChatGPT to map out a timeline of steps one should follow when they are approaching a specific milestone, such as transitioning from high school to employment. Caregivers can use this as a starting-off point when doing research on relevant programs or services, saving time that they would otherwise spend searching the web.

While ChatGPT can help reduce the load of some caregiving tasks, it can still make mistakes, generate incorrect information, and show bias. Always fact-check the information ChatGPT provides. Asking for a source when the chatbot produces factual information is a good first step.

Working With a Special Needs Planning Attorney

As AI technology advances, more applications for special needs care are sure to surface. For instance, emerging AI tools might help individuals with the first steps of drafting advance directives, managing SSI, or completing an annual report for a guardianship.

While technology can play a key role in making things easier for families affected by disability, AI cannot replicate the value of human thought and experience. Be sure to contact a local, licensed attorney for expert guidance on the many nuanced and complex aspects of special needs planning. An attorney can provide a unique perspective to complex questions and can help you create a personalized plan for the future for yourself or a loved one. Find a special needs planning attorney in your area today.

Related Reading

For additional reading on this topic, check out the following articles:

• How AI Is Supporting Assistive Technology

• Three Essential Documents for Parents of Children With Special Needs

• How Assistive Technology Can Support Independent Living

• Advancements in Diagnosing and Supporting Kids With Autism