Maria is 52 years old and caring for her father, who is seriously ill. She arranges and attends medical appointments, manages his medications, helps with bathing, dressing, and mobility, and supports him during hospital and care transitions. She also advocates on his behalf, making sure his symptoms are addressed, coordinating with clinicians, and stepping in to make decisions when needed. By night, she worries over side effects; by day, she worries over bills.
Though Maria is not a nurse by training, she does the work of one every single day.
A new white paper from the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) and the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) confirms what families like Maria’s already know: the number of caregivers in the U.S. has grown to 63 million, nearly one in four adults. That’s a 45% increase in the past decade.
The realities are staggering:
This is not an isolated issue. It’s a national reality and its impact ripples across families, communities, and the health system itself.
The recent C-TAC/NAC white paper, Not Just Visitors: Integrating Family Caregivers in Care Delivery and Design, underscores a critical truth: caregivers are not ancillary to serious illness care. They are its foundation. Key takeaways:
Caregivers are often excluded from formal care planning, despite providing critical labor.
Support services matter. Emotional health, respite care, and financial aid are as essential as medical guidance.
Training gaps are urgent. Many caregivers are managing complex clinical tasks with no preparation.
Policy and payment structures lag behind. Promising efforts like CMS’s GUIDE program are narrow in scope.
At Tuesday Health, these findings are not surprising. They are what we see every day and they are exactly why our model centers caregivers, not as afterthoughts, but as essential partners.
Here’s how we do it:
There is momentum for change. The CMS GUIDE model, which mandates caregiver support in dementia care, offers a promising blueprint. Bipartisan legislation like the Alleviating Barriers for Caregivers (ABC) Act shows that policymakers on both sides of the aisle understand the urgency.
But recognition alone won’t move the needle. To truly support caregivers, we must:
The Not Just Visitors report is both a mirror and a map. It reflects the daily reality millions of families live, and it points us toward a future where caregivers are recognized, trained, and supported.
At Tuesday Health, we see this as both an opportunity and a moral imperative. By centering caregivers, we can improve outcomes, lower costs, and most importantly, honor the people who hold families together in the hardest of times.
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