Caregiving is full of Easter eggs. And not always the exciting kind that Swifties find buried in lyrics or the ones you looked for as a kid. This week, we’re saving you a spiral ham and skipping the scavenger hunt.
We rounded up a dozen resources caregivers actually use to save time and money. As for the prize egg? You’ve already found us. Nicely done.
ICYMI
💰 A new report from AARP estimates the economic value of unpaid family caregiving in the U.S. continues to climb into the hundreds of billions.
🎂 Iris Palmer, who just celebrated her 109th birthday, credits her longevity to moonshine and good looking men.
🎤 Gray Monster creator Kim Elliott sat down with journalist and podcaster Laura House from How’s Your Boomer? to chat caregiving and what’s ahead.
💭 A study from Michigan Medicine finds caregivers and older adults often disagree on who should pay for long-term care.
🧠 A piece from American Community Media describes dementia caregiving as both an economic and emotional marathon.
The Hunt Is Over
Not the Easter basket of your youth but more helpful and less faux grass. Here’s a dozen of the resources we’ve found most supportive to caregivers:
Care Out Loud — Conversation guides, tools, and content that help you figure out what to say and what to do. Useful, engaging, and dare we say fun.
The Sandwich Club — Built for the “raising kids, managing parents, and trying to keep your job” crowd. Includes a Care Calculator to map the actual cost of care and a Care Registry to organize help. Locks in on the logistics. Gray Monster approved.
CareYaya — Connects families with college and healthcare students who can help with companionship, errands, rides, and tech. Not every situation calls for full-time care, but most situations call for some help.
BenefitsCheckUp — A tool that surfaces programs that may help cover food, medication, utilities, and more. Good for people who may be paying out of pocket for things that already have support attached.
Family Caregiver Alliance — A deep bench of resources, including state-by-state support and practical guidance. An interactive CaregiverHelpHub directs caregivers to the services they need.
Eldercare Locator — Connects you to local services, including Area Agencies on Aging. Region-specific help and a toll-free phone number makes winding through the government resource maze slightly easier.
Baba — A patient advocacy service that helps older adults and their families make sense of diagnoses, prepare for appointments, coordinate care, and manage medications with support from a nurse or social worker. Baba bills Medicare directly, many Medicare Advantage plans are covered too, and most members pay little to nothing out of pocket.
Hilarity For Charity — Alzheimer’s education, support, and caregiver respite grants served up with a side of celebrity and levity.
GoodRx — Compares prescription prices and finds discounts across pharmacies. Keeping money in your pocket as a caregiver isn’t always easy, cheaper meds help.
National Association of Senior and Speciality Move Managers — Helps you locate a trusted expert local to Mom when she needs to sort, downsize, pack, move, and get new digs set up. Gray Monster likes it because sometimes you need a professional, especially one that’s vetted, to run point.
NAMI — A free, confidential helpline for family caregivers for those supporting a loved one living with mental illness and a crisis line. Human help for those helping humans.
National Institute on Aging — Clear, credible information on caregiving, dementia, and aging.
None of the above will replace you. The goal is to save you time, money, and a little frustration, which in this line of unpaid work, is not nothing.
What’s Good
Helpful care-focused finds we’ve identified and researched so you don’t have to.
Gray Monster is hitting the open road, and we want you riding shotgun. We’re hosting our first in-person event, exclusively for caregivers, in NYC on May 7th, 9am-1pm ET.
careavan is free to attend. If meeting folks going through something similar to what you’re experiencing is your jam and hearing from experts and innovators in the care space is helpful, join us. Like all good roadtrips, we’ve got the snacks on standby and the souvenirs are legit.
Not located in New York? Tell us where we should head next.
Pop Quiz
You can’t fail this one. Answers and another quiz drop next week.
What kind of support do you need most right now as a caregiver?
Parenting Parents
You said it. This week’s submissions.
"My dad called to say he lost his cell phone - I called it to make it ring. It was in his shoe!"
"I got Mom a realistic doll. She loved it immediately. I was afraid, but it was an instant success."
"Caring for both my parents with dementia. It's crushing to see them change in so many ways."
"Third week of visits at the new SNF and Dad said 'Well, I still know who you are.'"
"It's been humbling to see the increase in dementia and a slow decline. Wowza."
