Why Caregivers Need Support Now More Than Ever
Millions of caregivers face stress, isolation, and financial strain. Discover how peer support helps caregivers feel heard and less alone.
-
-
Beyond the Headlines: Who Supports the People Holding Communities Together After Gun Violence?
When a community experiences gun violence, attention naturally turns to the person who was injured or killed and to the loved ones left behind. Those individuals deserve every resource and every opportunity to heal.
-
Building Community Through Shared Experience: How MASStrong Helped Shape the Future of MAPSN
Over the past year, our partnership with MASStrong and the GPS model has transformed not only the way we facilitate our peer support groups, but also the way we think about creating community.
-
Behind the Mental Health Crisis Are Healthcare Workers Who Are Also Struggling
Across Massachusetts, behavioral health organizations are being asked to do more with less while carrying the emotional weight of communities in crisis. Many mental health and social service agencies in the state are now facing devastating funding cuts, layoffs, and program closures at a time when the need for care has never been greater.
-
Healing the Helpers in Recovery Communities
When people think about recovery programs, they often picture clinical services, rules, or temporary housing. But at Gilly’s House in Wrentham, Massachusetts, recovery is built around something deeper: community, dignity, and belonging. Founded by Barbara and David Gillmeister after the loss of their son Steven to a drug overdose, Gilly’s House has become a lifeline…
-
The Power of Shared Experience in Perimenopause
When GPS launched a support group, the goal was simple: Create a structured space where people navigating perimenopause and menopause could talk openly, reflect together, and feel less alone. What quickly became clear is how deeply needed that space is.
-
What Midwives in Ghana and the US Are Teaching Me About Care and Community
I recently had the opportunity to join a conversation with midwives and health workers from Midwifery Exchange in Ghana, a group of midwives, doctors, and physician assistants based in Ghana and the US, who are beginning to explore what it might look like to bring peer support more intentionally into their maternal and community health settings. To help jumpstart this journey, GPS provided free facilitator training to the healthcare team in Ghana.
-
From Burnout to Belonging: How Peer Support Strengthens Organizations
Many participants shared that before joining GPS support groups, they rarely had structured opportunities to talk openly with colleagues about the emotional impact of their work. Unfortunately, this experience isn’t unusual. In many helping professions, the expectation is to stay composed and move on to the next task.
-
When Nurses Get to Exhale: What We Learned from Supporting NELC’s Home Infusion Team
Recently, MASStrong partnered with New England Life Care (NELC) to offer a structured GPS support group for their home infusion nurses. Their responses to post-support group surveys tell a powerful story about what happens when caregivers are given space to slow down and connect.
-
BLOG: Doulas Need Doula-Level Support: Why We Must Care for the Caregivers
By Liz Friedman, Co-Founder and CEO of GPS Group Peer Support Doulas —trained professionals who provide physical, emotional, and informational support before, during and shortly after childbirth— hold some of the most intimate, emotionally charged moments of a person’s life. They walk into labor and delivery rooms where joy, fear, trauma, power, and vulnerability collide,…
