Why Caregivers Need Support Now More Than Ever

There is an often forgotten workforce holding our communities together. They don’t clock in. They don’t always have formal training. Most don’t even think of themselves as caregivers.

They’re daughters helping aging parents navigate medical appointments. Spouses managing medications after work. Parents caring for children with complex medical needs. Friends checking in daily after a cancer diagnosis. Grandparents stepping in to raise grandchildren.

Caregiving happens behind closed doors, often with little recognition and even less support. Today, more Americans are caregivers than ever before, and the need for emotional support has never been greater.

Caregiving Is Becoming an Everyday Reality

A new national report from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving found that 63 million Americans—nearly one in four adults—are now providing ongoing care to a loved one. That’s an increase of 20 million caregivers since 2015, reflecting both an aging population and growing healthcare needs.

These caregivers are helping with everything from transportation and meal preparation to wound care, medication management, and navigating complex healthcare systems. Many are doing this while working full-time jobs or while raising children. 

Many are doing it almost entirely alone.

Nearly one-third of caregivers are part of the “sandwich generation,” simultaneously caring for children and aging adults. Among caregivers under age 50, that number climbs to nearly half.

The Emotional Toll Is Often Hidden

People often describe caregiving as an act of love. It is. But love doesn’t erase exhaustion. Caregivers regularly navigate grief, uncertainty, guilt, frustration, fear, and chronic stress—all while trying to remain calm for the person depending on them.

Recent national research shows:

• Nearly 1 in 4 caregivers report feeling socially isolated.
• 1 in 5 say they are in fair or poor health.
• Nearly 1 in 4 struggle to care for their own health because caregiving comes first.
• Half of all caregivers report work disruptions because of caregiving responsibilities.
• Nearly half have experienced significant financial hardship, including taking on debt, reducing savings, or struggling to afford basic necessities.

In addition to the emotional and physical impacts of caregiving, there can also be financial consequences. For many, caregiving means declining promotions, reducing hours, using vacation time for medical appointments, or leaving jobs altogether.

The result is a level of chronic stress that impacts every part of life, not only today, but often for years to come. Caregivers need spaces where they can care for themselves, too.

Peer Support Offers Something Different

Many caregivers are familiar with advice that focuses on self-care.

“Take a break.”

“Remember to rest.”

“Ask for help.”

While well intentioned, these suggestions can feel impossible when someone’s daily reality leaves little room to breathe. Peer support offers something different. Instead of telling caregivers what they should do, it creates opportunities to connect with people who understand the emotional realities of caregiving.

At GPS Group Peer Support, our model is built on the idea that healing often begins when people realize they are not alone. Participants don’t come to be fixed, they come to be heard.

Through guided conversations, mindfulness practices, and shared experiences, caregivers can explore the challenges they carry while reconnecting with their own resilience.

The goal isn’t to eliminate the realities of caregiving, it’s to ensure caregivers don’t have to carry those realities by themselves.

Introducing the GPS Curriculum for Caregivers

To meet this growing need, GPS has developed the GPS Curriculum for Caregivers, a trauma-informed, peer support guide created specifically for people who spend so much of their lives caring for others. Across four thoughtfully designed sessions, participants explore topics including:

• The invisible emotional weight of caregiving
• Burnout, guilt, and compassion fatigue
• Boundaries and building a sustainable support system
• Reconnecting with meaning, identity, and hope

Rather than focusing on solving problems or giving advice, the curriculum creates space for caregivers to reflect, connect, and remember that their wellbeing matters too.

As caregiving continues to touch more families, workplaces, healthcare organizations, and communities than ever before, supporting caregivers is no longer optional, it’s essential. Because when caregivers are supported, they are better able to continue supporting others. And because the people who spend so much of their lives caring for everyone else deserve spaces where someone is caring for them, too.

Bring MASStrong to Your Workplace

GPS’s MASStrong program offers free GPS trainings, support groups, curriculums, and toolkits for Massachusetts medical, behavioral health, and community care workers and organizations. Eligible organizations can also apply for GPS partnership support and grants up to $10,000.