For years, caregiving has been treated like something that happens quietly in the background. But here’s the truth: caregiving isn’t a side story anymore. It’s central to American life and to the strength of our workforce.
In Georgia and across the country, that reality is already shaping how people work, care for their families, and engage with our health systems. Yet too often, our policies and workplaces haven’t caught up.
During National Family Caregivers Month, we described caregiving as “love in motion.” It is an act of commitment, resilience, and sacrifice, but love alone doesn’t provide paid leave, affordable services, or mental health support. As caregiving becomes more common, one question grows more urgent: Who is caring for the caregivers?
More of Us Are Caregiving Than Ever Before
Caregiving is no longer a niche experience. According to the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP (2025), an estimated 22.5% of U.S. adults (59 million people) provide care for another adult. That includes helping with daily activities, managing medications, coordinating medical appointments, and navigating complex health systems.
In Georgia, the scale is just as striking. Public health data and state-level estimates show that caregiving touches nearly every community, across age groups, income levels, and regions. These responsibilities are not occasional. They are sustained, essential work that families and our broader health care system depend on every day.
Research from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving (2025) consistently finds that many caregivers adjust work schedules, reduce hours, or take time off to meet care needs. For millions of families, caregiving and work are inseparable.
And that raises an important question: if caregiving is this widespread, how is it reshaping who works and under what conditions?
Caregiving Looks Different Than It Used To
Caregiving today spans generations and life stages. Adults are caring for aging parents, spouses, siblings, and adult children with disabilities. At the same time, many caregivers are also raising children or maintaining full-time jobs.
Some caregiving roles are time-limited; others last for years. According to the Alzheimer’s Association (2024), more than 11 million Americans provide unpaid care for people living with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias, a number expected to grow as the population ages.
What this tells us is simple but profound: caregiving is not confined to one gender, one generation, or one phase of life. It is a defining feature of modern family life and a growing factor in workforce participation and stability.
As caregiving expands, its impacts don’t stay at home. They show up in mental health outcomes, job retention, and economic security.
The Hidden Cost: Mental Health and Well-Being
Caregiving is an act of love. But without adequate support, it can also take a serious toll.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019), caregivers are more likely to experience chronic stress, depression, anxiety, and declines in physical health, particularly when they delay or forgo their own care. These risks increase when caregivers lack respite, financial stability, or access to mental health services.
The strain doesn’t stop with individual caregivers. When burnout leads to missed work, job loss, or worsening health, families, employers, and health systems all feel the impact.
That reality makes caregiving not just a personal issue, but a public health and workforce issue that demands coordinated solutions.
What Employers Can Do
Caregiving is a predictable part of working life. Employers who ignore it risk higher turnover, absenteeism, and lost productivity.
Research shows that caregiving-related work disruptions are common, but they are also preventable with the right supports. Employers can make a meaningful difference by offering:
Flexible or predictable schedules
Remote or hybrid work options when possible
Paid time off and caregiving leave
Clear information about benefits and community resources (See list below.)
Mental health support that is accessible and stigma-free
These policies don’t just help caregivers. They strengthen workforce stability and retention across the board.
Still, even the most supportive workplaces can’t solve caregiving alone. That’s where public policy must step in.
What Policymakers Can Do
Caregivers provide essential services that keep families and communities functioning. Yet for decades, policy has assumed caregiving is unpaid, unlimited, and invisible.
According to the AARP Public Policy Institute (Reinhard et al., 2023), the economic value of unpaid family caregiving in the United States was estimated at $600 billion in 2021. That’s work that would otherwise fall to strained health and long-term care systems.
More recently, the federal government released the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers (2022), a comprehensive framework to support caregivers of all ages, across all settings, and throughout the lifespan.
A modern caregiving policy agenda may include:
Paid family and medical leave that covers caregiving
Access to mental health services for caregivers and care recipients
Navigation support so families aren’t left to manage complex systems alone
Investment in home and community-based services that prevent burnout and crisis
Policymakers can’t solve caregiving alone, but they can set the conditions for workplaces, communities, and families to succeed.
Let’s Make Caregiving Visible and Supported
Caregiving is already reshaping our workforce, our health systems, and our economy. The real question is whether we will build systems that recognize and support it.
Employers can treat caregiving as a normal part of work life.
Policymakers can invest in solutions that strengthen families and the economy.
Advocates can continue lifting up caregiver voices and lived experiences.
Caregiving is love in motion. Love needs support. Recognizing caregiving as essential work is not just a compassionate policy. It’s a smart public health and sound economic strategy.
Caregiving Resources
While long-term policy change is essential, caregivers also need help right now.
Respite care (personal care and homemaker services)
Nutrition and legal assistance
Counseling and caregiver education
All of Georgia’s Area Agencies on Aging provide caregiver services. Caregivers can find their local agency and available programs through the state.
Georgia’s Aging & Disability Resource Connection (1-866-552-4464) offers statewide access to information specialists who help connect families to caregiver programs and supports.
For a practical, Georgia-specific guide, Caring Across Generations’ Georgia Care Kit (2024) provides an overview of programs, eligibility, and next steps for caregivers across the state.
Georgia Resources
National Resources
Georgia Department of Human Services, Division of Aging Services
Statewide caregiver supports, respite services, nutrition, adult day services, and home and community based programs
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