Your father needs a ride to an appointment. A relative suggests calling the county. Another relative remembers a number from a hospital discharge packet. By the afternoon, you have spoken with several offices and still need to arrange the ride.
The next call becomes easier when the problem fits into a sentence: your father needs transportation from home to a particular appointment, and the family needs to know which local services might help. That sentence gives an office something specific to answer.
Who to Contact brings offices, contact information, suggested questions, and places to record answers together. Its call log provides a useful starting point for families whose search has begun to spread across scraps of paper and messages.
Name the task
Before calling, write down what your father needs and when the need arises. For transportation, include the appointment location and the help your father expects to need getting from his door to the vehicle. Ask your father which arrangements would work for him.
Keep an initial information request focused. You can ask which office handles transportation in your father's area, what information that office will require, and how to contact it. Record the answer before moving to questions about a particular service.
A conversation may lead to an application, an assessment, a referral, or another information call. Ask the staff member to name the next step. Write that step down using the words the staff member uses, then ask what your father or the family needs to do.
Prepare the record
The book's chapter My Own Numbers includes spaces for local offices and providers, followed by a call log. The log asks for the date, the office and number, the person you spoke with, what the staff member said, and the next step.
Have that page ready before dialing. Put your father's question at the top of your notes. Keep the relevant appointment information beside the log so you can describe the request consistently.
If your father can participate, ask how he would like to join the conversation. Before sharing personal information, ask the office what it needs and how it handles a relative calling alongside a family member. Let the office explain its procedure for your father's situation.
Record the answer you actually receive
An illustrative entry might read: “County information office. Spoke with intake staff. Asked about a ride to Father's clinic. Staff provided the transportation service's contact information. Next step: call the service to ask about coverage area, assistance, scheduling, and cost.”
That entry preserves the difference between receiving a referral and arranging a ride. At the next call, ask whether the service covers your father's address and destination. Ask what assistance the service provides, when to request a trip, and what your father would pay.
Write down any promised response and the staff member's stated time for that response. If the office cannot give a time, record that answer and ask when it would be reasonable to check again. Assign the follow-up to a named relative who agrees to make it.
Ask where to go next
An office may handle a different part of the problem. Ask, “Which office handles this request, and what should I say when I call?” Then read the referral back to check the name and contact information.
Before ending a useful call, summarize the action you understood: your father will provide a document, a staff member will return a call, or you will contact another office. Ask the staff member to correct anything you misunderstood.
Put the call record where the relative making the next call can find it. Write the next office's name, the question to ask, and who has agreed to follow up.
Related book
Who to Contact includes the directory, My Own Numbers pages, and call log. Its edition page provides current formats and free downloads.