Name the work before you try to reduce it
Most families underestimate their own load because so much of it is invisible. Write down one ordinary week: the prompts, the repeated questions, the calls at eleven at night, the appointments you hold in your head.
Once it is on paper, it sorts itself into three piles. Things only you can do. Things anyone patient could do. Things nobody should have to do twenty times a week.
Hand off repetition, keep relationship
The second and third piles are where assistive technology belongs. A companion can carry the repeating prompts, the step-by-step walkthroughs, and the two in the morning question about whether the door is locked.
What stays with you is the part that was always yours. The visit, the joke, the decision, the presence.
Build one place for the information
Scattered notes are a second job. Keep routines, preferences, contacts, and the things that reliably help in one shared place the whole support circle can see.
This also protects you. If you are sick for a week, the person supporting your loved one does not have to start from nothing.
Decide in advance what counts as an alert
Peace of mind comes from knowing what will reach you and what will not. Agree with your family on what deserves a phone call, what deserves a message, and what can wait for a weekly recap.
Anything that sounds like danger should reach a person immediately. Everything else should be quiet by default.
Ask for the boring help too
Respite, benefits counseling, and a case manager who returns calls are not luxuries. Your state developmental disabilities agency and your local Area Agency on Aging are the two phone calls most families wish they had made a year earlier.