Caregiving has skyrocketed over the past few years. Approximately 53 million Americans provided unpaid care in 2020 (up from 43.5 million in 2015) with the vast majority (89 percent) caring for a relative. Sixty-one percent of caregivers are female, and the same percentage of caregivers were employed while caregiving. [i]

Few people knew how much my friend Julie was struggling. She worked full-time and was raising two children while caring for her father-in-law with Alzheimers. She seemed to appreciate when I asked how things were going and empathized with her, but she never reached out otherwise.

Statistics don’t matter when you’re the one in the trenches, when you feel as if you’re all alone.

Don’t hesitate to talk with others. Ask for prayer. You might be surprised how many people are or have been where you are. They can give you emotional support and offer tips to help you survive this season. We all need encouragement, especially when going through the stress of caregiving.

You are not alone.

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 KJV

Infographic of caregiving in the US in 2020

Tracy Crump dispenses hope in the award-winning Health, Healing, and Wholeness: Devotions of Hope in the Midst of Illness (CrossLink Publishing, 2021). A former intensive care nurse, she cared for her parents and her mother-in-law and understands both the burdens and joys of caregiving. Her devotions have been featured in Guideposts books, The Upper Room, and many other publications, and she has contributed 22 stories to Chicken Soup for the Soul® books. She also conducts writing workshops, freelance edits, and proofreads for Farmers’ Almanac. But her most important job is Grandma to five completely unspoiled grandchildren.

[i] National Alliance for Caregiving, “Caregiving in the U.S. 2020”