Guides for family caregivers
Practical, honest help for coordinating care, tracking medications, weighing care options, and sharing the load with your family. Search by what you're facing, or browse by topic.
44 guides
Research & data
The numbers behind family caregiving today.
Getting started
Newly in it? What to do first, and how to read the early signs.
Long-distance caregiving: how to stay involved and genuinely helpful from afar
Caring for a parent from another city or state? Here’s how to take on real responsibilities remotely — and support whoever’s closest.
Read guide →The first week after a parent’s diagnosis: a calm caregiver’s checklist
A diagnosis lands and suddenly there’s too much to do. Here’s a calm, prioritized checklist for the first week as a new family caregiver.
Read guide →How to organize your parent’s medical information — so it’s there when it matters
A binder on the shelf only helps the person holding it. Here’s what to gather — and how to keep it shared and current so anyone helping can find it fast.
Read guide →The quiet signs your aging parent needs more help — and what to do next
It’s rarely one dramatic moment. Here’s a grounded checklist of the signs an aging parent needs more help — and what to do once you notice them.
Read guide →Care options & costs
Weighing home care, assisted living, and how to pay for it.
Care options
Respite care and geriatric care managers: what they are, what they cost, and when to use them
You don’t have to carry it alone — or learn the whole system by yourself. A plain guide to respite care and geriatric care managers: what they do and what they cost.
Read guide →Assisted living, nursing home, or memory care? How to choose the right fit
Assisted living, nursing home, or memory care? Here’s what each one actually is, what it costs, and how to choose the right fit for your parent.
Read guide →Home care vs assisted living: which is right — and the point where the math flips
Keep Mom at home with help, or move to assisted living? Here’s how to weigh it — including the hours-per-week point where the cost math flips.
Read guide →Hiring an in-home caregiver: agency vs private, what to vet, and how to coordinate
Ready to bring in help at home? Here’s how to choose between an agency and hiring privately, what to vet, and how to coordinate once care starts.
Read guide →Family & the sandwich generation
Sharing the load across siblings and households — without the resentment.
How to split caregiving responsibilities among siblings — without the resentment
When one sibling carries the load, resentment builds quietly. Here’s a practical way to divide caregiving fairly — and make the invisible work visible.
Read guide →The sandwich generation: how to care for your parents and your kids without losing yourself
Raising kids and caring for a parent at the same time? You’re the sandwich generation. Here’s how to carry it without burning out.
Read guide →When an aging parent moves in: making a multigenerational household actually work
Having a parent move in can be the right call — and a hard one. Here’s how to set it up so it works for everyone under one roof.
Read guide →Keeping the whole family in the loop: a care-communication system that actually works
When updates live in one person’s head or a chaotic group text, things fall through. Here’s how to build a shared system that keeps everyone in the loop.
Read guide →How to ask for help with caregiving — and build a care team that shows up
Most caregivers carry too much because asking for help feels impossible. Here’s how to ask so people actually say yes — and show up.
Read guide →Health & medications
Keeping medications, appointments, and conditions on track together.
Medications
A simple medication tracking system for aging parents (that the whole family can follow)
Pills missed, doubled, or lost in a group text? Here’s a simple medication tracking system the whole family can actually keep up with.
Read guide →Managing multiple medications and chronic conditions, as a family
Several conditions, a dozen medications, multiple doctors — the danger is in the gaps. Here’s how to build a family system that closes them.
Read guide →Dementia care
When a parent with dementia accuses you of stealing
“Someone took my purse.” When a parent with dementia accuses you of stealing — here’s why it happens, and how to respond without making it worse.
Read guide →Why evenings get harder — and how to ease sundowning
As the afternoon fades, confusion and agitation rise. What sundowning is, why it happens, and the evening routine that helps a parent with dementia settle.
Read guide →Why morning light calms the evenings
Rough evenings and 3 a.m. wakings? Open the curtains first thing. How morning light steadies the body clock to ease sundowning and night waking.
Read guide →How to get a parent with dementia to shower or bathe — without the battle
Bath time turned into a daily fight? How to reduce the fear, protect dignity, and get a parent with dementia clean — without forcing it.
Read guide →Should someone with dementia live alone? Signs it's no longer safe
Early dementia can work alone with support, but it changes. The warning signs it’s no longer safe — and what to do when the answer becomes no.
Read guide →How to stop a parent with dementia from wandering at night
Up again, pacing, trying to leave? How to find what’s driving night wandering, steady the body clock, and make the home safe so everyone can rest.
Read guide →What to say when a parent with dementia asks for someone who died
Your parent keeps asking for a spouse or mother who died years ago. Why correcting them often backfires — and gentle, real words to say instead.
Read guide →Caring for a parent with dementia or Alzheimer’s: a complete family guide
Everything families need to care for a parent with dementia — the stages, daily routine, communication, safety, medications, care options, and how to share the load without burning out.
Read guide →Early-stage dementia: a daily routine the whole family can keep
Routine is steadying in early dementia — but only if everyone keeps the same one. Here’s how to build it, and how to keep every caregiver in sync.
Read guide →Caring for a parent with dementia as it progresses: what changes, stage by stage
Dementia care keeps changing as the disease progresses. Here’s what shifts from early to late stage — and how to adapt and keep everyone steady.
Read guide →Hard moments & your wellbeing
The difficult conversations — and taking care of yourself, too.
Hard conversations
When a parent won’t accept help: how to have the conversation
“I’m fine.” When a parent refuses help, the answer isn’t a better argument. Here’s how to approach the conversation so it actually lands.
Read guide →How to talk to an aging parent about end-of-life wishes — before you have to
It’s the conversation everyone avoids — and the one that spares the most pain later. Here’s how to gently talk with a parent about their wishes.
Read guide →Caregiver wellbeing
Small resets that keep you steady
When it’s too much, you don’t need an hour — you need ninety seconds. The slow-breathing reset caregivers can use anywhere, and why it works.
Read guide →Staying connected while you care
The first thing caregivers drop is their friendships — it feels responsible, but it isn’t. Why staying connected protects you, and how to do it with no time.
Read guide →Caregiver burnout and the mental load no one sees
The hardest part isn’t the tasks — it’s carrying the whole thing in your head. Here’s how to recognize caregiver burnout and genuinely share the load.
Read guide →Self-care for caregivers: the realistic version, for people with no time
“Take time for yourself” is useless advice when you have none. Here’s realistic self-care for caregivers who are already stretched thin.
Read guide →Coming from another app
Moving your family’s care from a retired app to Carelo.