Caregivers are struggling. Virtual support may help.

The Castle Center provides adults with dementia in need of assistance care during the day. Open five days a week, the center offers participants meals, medication monitoring, personal care assistance with the help of nurses and volunteers, socialization and activities like arts and crafts. The Center also offers time off for caregivers — like family members — who often care for people with dementia 24/7.

Caregivers who step up to the plate to care for friends or family members are often overworked and underpaid. To remedy this, several organizations and measures at both the local and national levels are emerging to provide support. For example, the RAISE Family Caregivers Act became law in 2018 and is designed to create a nationwide strategy on how government officials can better support caregivers. On a local level, nonprofits like Team Suzy provide financial support and resources to those suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s who can’t afford necessary supplies.

The Partners in Caring Respite program pairs volunteers with people in the early stages of cognitive neurological disorders — like dementia — to offer care and companion programs, allowing them to build relationships and provide respite for family caregivers. Partners in Caring has expended to four counties across the state, serving over 400 families with its 70 on-call volunteers.

The Veterans Health Administration's Caregiver Support Program offers resources to family caregivers looking after veterans, including a monthly stipend, medical services, counseling and mental health care, respite care and coverage for travel expenses. The Program launched in 2011 and by 2014 about 15,600 caregivers had been approved for support — greatly exceeding the Program’s original estimate of 4,000 people.

Various programs and organizations, like Grandparents Raising Grandchildren and Grandparents Parenting Again, are helping seniors navigate and understand kinship care, providing them with guidance and support to transition to caring for loved ones.

The Ohio District 5 Area Agency on Aging hires state-tested nursing assistants (STNA) to act as community care specialists and provide in-home care to seniors. This care provides respite for unpaid family caregivers and allows seniors to continue living independently in their homes. In 2023 alone, the program served 130 residents, providing 2,371 hours of in-home care.

The Musical Memories Cafe is a social gathering space for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia, as well as their caregivers. Participants gather to enjoy music, seek refuge outside of their homes and get access to peer support and health resources. There are more than 1,000 memory cafes operating around the world, both in-person and virtually.

PACE — Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly — provides free, necessary care to seniors, as well as resources like medicines and other accommodations. PACE also provides a health clinic, urgent care center, home services and offers respite to caregivers in need of a break. Nationwide, there are 273 PACE programs in 32 states. Michigan alone has seven, with two more to be added within the next year or so.

To prevent burnout and increase employee retention, Ascension Hospitals offers its employees resources like online and in-person therapy, crisis hotlines, incentive pay for holidays and extra hours, mental health check-ins and even tuition reimbursement. These measures help employees feel appreciated and when employees feel taken care of they’re less likely to quit their jobs or leave the caregiving profession altogether.

More than five million Americans have Alzheimer’s or similar illnesses, and that number is growing as the population ages - without any immediate prospect of a cure, advocacy groups have begun promoting ways to offer people with dementia a comfortable decline instead of imposing on them a medical model of care, which seeks to defer death through escalating interventions. An Arizona nursing home offers new ways to care for people with dementia.