When the Caregiver Needs Care
The people who spend their lives caring for others are often the last to notice when they need care themselves. They can recognize burnout a mile away — in others. But when it shows up in their own reflection, they see something else entirely: failure, weakness, laziness. I was reminded of this during a recent conversation on the Healthy Minds Philly chatline. The woman who reached out was in her early sixties. She was grieving a child she’d lost four years earlier, supporting her incarcerated son’s family, and caring full-time for her disabled granddaughter, all while feeling completely alone. By the time she contacted us, she was spending most days in bed, unable to answer her phone, and calling herself [...]


