General Caregiving Information

Use MedlinePlus.gov to find and share free, trustworthy health information from the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

• Caregivers
• Being a Caregiver in multiple languages
• Dementia - home care

Caregiver Stress Fact Sheet [PDF] (Office on Women's Health)

Caring for Others: Resources to Help You (U.S. Food and Drug Administration)

Caregiver Action Network (CAN)

Find and Compare Nursing Homes (Medicare.gov)

Get Support If You're a Caregiver (MyHealthfinder)

National Respite Network and Resource Center (ARCH)

Reference Books

Reference books can be a great way to answer your questions and learn more. Borrow these books from your public library.

Fragile Years: Proven Strategies for the Care of Aging Loved Ones | Amy Cameron O'Rourke - Author Interview | Simon & Schuster | 2021 | 224 pages | ISBN: 978-1642939460 | WorldCat 

Self-Care for Caregivers: A Practical Guide to Caring for You While You Care for Your Loved Ones | Susanne White | Simon & Schuster | 2022 | 208 pages | ISBN: 978-1507218396 | WorldCat

Specialized Caregiving/Caregiving for Special Populations

Caregiving Tips for Families of People With Disabilities (CDC)

Caring for a Person Who Has Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities (Created by familydoctor.org editorial staff and reviewed by Beth Oller, MD. Last updated September 2022)

Caring for Those Who Care Resources for Providers: Meeting the Needs of Diverse Family Caregivers [PDF] Diverse Elders Coalition

Community and Culture Help Black Caregivers Cope with the Challenges of Family Caregiving by Barry J. Jacobs. AARP. February 9, 2021

Finding an Aging Life Care Expert. A Geriatric Care Manager, usually a licensed nurse or social worker who specializes in geriatrics, is a sort of "professional relative" who can help you and your family to identify needs and find ways to meet your needs.

Finding help for teens who grow up caregiving for their disabled military parents by Carson Frame. Shots: Health News from NPR. March 7, 2022

The Future of Family Caregiver Support is Diverse and Inclusive by Amanda Singleton. AARP. March 4, 2020

Guide for Caregivers (National Multiple Sclerosis Society) [PDF] Also in Spanish

Home Based Primary Care is part of the the VHA Standard Medical Benefits Package and for Veterans who have complex health care needs for whom routine clinic-based care is not effective. All enrolled Veterans are eligible.

Latina Sees Caring For Her Mother As Part Of Life's Circle by Matthew Casey. KJZZ News Phoenix. October 18, 2017

National Indian Council on Aging: For Caregivers and The Savvy Caregiver in Indian Country Trainer’s Manual

Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) provides comprehensive and interdisciplinary medical and social services to certain frail, community-dwelling elderly individuals, most of whom are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid benefits.

When Someone You Love is Being Treated for Cancer: Support for Caregivers (National Cancer Institute)

Who are today’s Hispanic/Latino family caregivers? [PDF] National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP 2020

Why We Must Support our Hispanic/Latinx Caregivers by Yanira Cruz and Ocean Le. Generation's Today. American Society on Aging. Retrieved October 13, 2022

Book

When Kate Washington and her husband, Brad, learned that he had cancer, they were a young couple: professionals with ascending careers, parents to two small children. Brad’s diagnosis stripped those identities away: he became a patient and she his caregiver. Kate acted as his full-time aide to keep him alive, coordinating his treatments, making doctors’ appointments, calling insurance companies, filling dozens of prescriptions, cleaning commodes, administering IV drugs. She became so burned out that, when she took an online quiz on caregiver self-care, her result cheerily declared: “You’re already toast!” Through it all, she felt profoundly alone, but, as she later learned, she was in fact one of millions: an invisible army of family caregivers working every day in America, their unpaid labor keeping our troubled healthcare system afloat.  Readable, relatable, timely, and often raw, Already Toast—with its clear call for paying and supporting family caregivers—is a crucial intervention in that conversation, bringing together personal experience with deep research to give voice to those tasked with the overlooked, vital work of caring for the seriously ill.

Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America | Kate Washington | Beacon Press | 2021 | 224 pages | ISBN: 978-0807011508 | WorldCat |

Author

Kate Washington is an essayist and food writer who currently serves as the dining critic for The Sacramento Bee. Her work has appeared in many publications, including The Washington Post, Eater, Catapult, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. She lives in Northern California.

Official Website of Kate Washington

Book

When Kyle left her marketing position at one of Philadelphia's iconic media outlets to start her own consulting business, she thought she was finally in complete control of her life. She had no idea things were about to take a sudden and dramatic turn. A few short months after launching her dream, Paula, Kyle's youthful, vibrant, and active mother, suffered the first of three strokes. Within the space of twenty-four hours, stroke catapulted the mother and daughter into a whole new world and a relationship for which neither was prepared. 

In Stroke's Shadow: My Caregiver Story | Kyle Ruffin | Fulton Books | 2021 | 250 pages | ISBN: 978-1649527493 | WorldCat |

Author

Kyle Ruffin is a marketing and communications consultant who has had a long career working in the media and nonprofit fields in the Greater Philadelphia region. "In Stroke’s Shadow" is her first book, which she views as an important tool for opening up conversations around the impact of caregiving, particularly for African Americans.

Kyle is a dynamic speaker and presenter, who has now turned her attention to talking and writing about caregiving to help others see this role as a calling rather than a sentence. She knows how isolating caregiving can feel, and she seeks to help others connect, heal, and embrace self-care.

Official Website of Kyle Ruffin

Book

Gretchen Staebler promises to spend one year in her childhood home caring for her stubborn ninety-six-year-old mother—sort of a middle-aged gap year. Then her mother will move to assisted living and she will return to her own life, their relationship magically having become all she ever longed it to be. Can it be that easy? As mother and daughter each try desperately to keep a firm grasp on their independence, their daily battles in Mama’s kitchen fiefdom echo the clash of adolescence and menopause in the same spot decades earlier. Penetrating the fog of her mother’s advancing dementia, hypochondria, and blindness with humor, frustration, and compassion—and wine—the author slowly comes to accept and respect the mother she got, if not the one she wished for. In the process, she becomes a self-taught authority on aging, dementia, the healthcare system, and self-care. But how long will healing between mother and daughter take—and how long do they have?

Mother Lode: Confessions of a Reluctant Caregiver | She Writes Press | 2022 | 384 pages | ISBN: 978-1647422837 | WorldCat |

Author

Gretchen Staebler is a wandering adventurer who left decades of grown-up life on the East Coast at age sixty to return to the mountains, beaches, and rain of her soul’s home in the Pacific Northwest. She blogs about her adventures from coffee shops, her father’s desk, national park lodges, her tent—wherever she feels cozy. She writes to learn who she is in the world and within herself and shares it with readers who may find themselves in places they never expected to be.

Official Website of Gretchen Staebler