I built an app to fix how families coordinate care for elderly relatives

#productivity #showdev #sideprojects #softwaredevelopment

The problem I kept seeing

Picture a typical family caring for an elderly parent at home. There's a paid morning carer, an afternoon family member, and an occasional nurse. Three people, different shifts, different days — and zero shared record of what happened.

Every handover is a rushed phone call or a voice note buried in a WhatsApp thread. Critical things slip through — a medication given twice by accident, a dizziness episode no one mentioned, a doctor's instruction that never reached the next carer.

Before CareLink

WhatsApp chains mixing casual chat with care notes
Paper diaries that only one person reads
"Did she take the pill?" — no one knows
Family finds out something went wrong days later
Every carer has their own system

With CareLink

One shared log everyone reads and writes in
Log an entry in under 15 seconds
Urgent alerts surface instantly to all carers
Medication confirmed given — no more doubt
Formal handoff at shift end, every time

Feature 1 — The daily log

The daily log is the whole product. Every other feature exists to support it. Any carer on the team can add an entry in under 15 seconds — no mandatory fields, no complicated forms.

There are 8 entry types to choose from: Medication, Meal, Mood, Symptom, Activity, Doctor Visit, Note, and Handoff. Each has its own colour, icon, and smart field hints.

Home Dashboard

Add new entry

Tapping the urgent flag on any entry sends an alert to every carer on the team. A red banner appears at the top of the home screen for everyone until the issue is noted — so nothing critical gets missed between shifts.

Feature 2 — Medication tracker

Medication is the highest-stakes part of the day. CareLink has a dedicated medication tracker that removes the guesswork entirely.

Medication tracker

Feature 3 - Shared team log, real-time

Every carer on the team sees the same log. When someone adds an entry, it appears on everyone else's screen within seconds — no manual refresh, no out-of-date information.