Caregiver Support Groups: Where to Find One, and Why It’s Worth the Effort
One in five family caregivers rates their own health as fair or poor, and almost a quarter say caregiving has pushed them into debt, according to the 2025 Caregiving in the U.S. report from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving. Those aren’t small numbers, and they point to something important: struggling with the emotional weight of caregiving isn’t a sign you’re doing it wrong, it’s close to the statistical norm. A support group (whether in person or online) is one of the more effective, and most underused, tools available for actually carrying that weight better.
One in five family caregivers rates their own health as fair or poor.
Why this is worth prioritizing, not just a nice extra
The scale of unpaid caregiving in the US is larger than most people realize until they’re in it themselves: about 63 million Americans (roughly 1 in 4 adults) are family caregivers today, and for many of them it adds up to a second part-time or even full-time job layered on top of everything else in life. Caregivers also spend an average of $7,242 a year of their own money on caregiving costs, according to AARP, adding financial strain to the emotional and physical toll. Given all of that, isolation is one of the most common and least discussed consequences of caregiving: friends drift away because there’s no time to maintain those relationships, and the sheer specificity of what a caregiver is dealing with day to day can feel impossible to explain to someone who hasn’t lived it. A support group directly addresses that isolation by putting you in a room (physical or virtual) with people who genuinely understand the situation without needing it explained from scratch.
What a support group actually does for you
Beyond simply reducing loneliness, a good support group provides real practical value: other members have often already solved problems you’re currently facing: a specific behavioral issue with dementia, a tricky conversation with a sibling, a way to navigate a particular insurance hurdle, and can offer solutions you wouldn’t have found on your own. Groups also help with something less tangible but just as real: a lot of caregivers carry guilt, particularly around difficult decisions like moving a parent into assisted living, and hearing from others who’ve faced the same decision and made peace with it can meaningfully ease that guilt in a way that reassurance from someone outside the caregiving world often can’t.
Where to find one, condition-specific
If your parent has a specific diagnosis, the disease-specific organizations are usually the fastest path to a well-matched group. The Alzheimer’s Association has a map feature to locate the nearest in-person or virtual support group for dementia caregivers specifically. The National Stroke Association offers a Stroke Support Group Finder tool, the Parkinson’s Foundation maintains a local chapter locator with group listings, and the American Cancer Society lets you search by ZIP code for cancer-specific caregiver groups. If your parent is a veteran, the VA’s National Caregiver Support Line (1-855-260-3274) is a direct route to caregiver-specific resources and groups.
Where to find one, more generally
Your local Area Agency on Aging is worth calling regardless of your parent’s specific condition: they maintain comprehensive regional listings of caregiver support groups and can often point you toward options you wouldn’t find through a general web search. The Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA) serves caregivers broadly, including those caring for someone with Alzheimer’s, stroke, Parkinson’s, or a brain injury, and offers both in-person meetings (in the San Francisco Bay Area specifically) and virtual Zoom-based groups more broadly available, reachable at 800-445-8106.
Online options, if in-person doesn’t fit your schedule or situation
For caregivers who can’t easily get to an in-person meeting (a common problem, given how little free time most caregivers actually have) online options offer real flexibility, including some that operate as ongoing email or forum discussions rather than a scheduled meeting time. Memory People is a private, active Facebook group specifically for Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers. The Purple Sherpa Basecamp focuses directly on the isolation that dementia caregivers commonly experience. Working Daughter, with over 4,000 members, is built specifically for caregivers trying to balance caregiving with an ongoing career: a particular and common source of strain that general caregiving groups don’t always address directly. AgingCare’s Caregiver Forum offers an active, ongoing Q&A format rather than scheduled meetings, useful for getting a specific question answered on your own timeline. And for caregivers who are also LGBTQ+, dedicated groups exist specifically for that intersection of experience, recognizing that some of the challenges and family dynamics involved are genuinely distinct.
How to actually pick one
Start with a disease-specific group if your parent has a clear diagnosis: the shared specific experience tends to produce more directly useful advice than a general caregiving group can. If scheduling is the main obstacle, prioritize the online and forum-based options, since they let you participate on your own time rather than requiring you to free up a specific hour each week. And don’t assume the first group you try is the right fit: different groups have genuinely different tones, sizes, and levels of activity, and it’s completely reasonable to try one, decide it’s not quite right, and look for another rather than concluding that support groups in general aren’t for you.
Sources: A Place for Mom: 22 Top Caregiver Support Groups: Online and In-Person, Family Caregiver Alliance: Support Groups, AARP: Caregiving in the US 2025, AARP: Family Caregivers’ Out-of-Pocket Costs
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