What You’ll Find Inside Trualta.
Explore the features that help caregivers learn new skills, find support, and feel more connected – on their own time, in their own way.
The Learning Library
Browse a wide range of caregiver-focused topics, short lessons, how-tos, and expert guidance available anytime.
Learning Topics
Essential caregiving topics designed to help you feel more informed and prepared. Covering everything from hands-on care to emotional well-being.
- Heart Health
- Kidney Disease
- Lung Health
- Diabetes
- Mental Illness
- Medications
- Dementia & Alzheimer’s
- General Caregiving
- Caring For Older Adults
- Caregiver Wellness
- Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities
- Mobility Falls
- Parkinsons
- Stroke
- End of Life Care
- Caring for Kids
- Lung Health
Learning Formats
Video, Audio, & Articles
Watch, listen, or read – learn in the way that works best for you
Lessons & Toolkits
Choose from individual lessons or follow a structured learning path focused on key caregiving topics.
Scenarios & Resources
Interactive scenarios to help you prepare, plus local resources to connect you with support nearby.
Check Out Our Most Popular Content
Effective Self-Care
Effective Self-Care
Prioritize your well-being. Learn to include self-care activities in your schedule to support balance and reduce stress.
When caring for someone, it’s critical to dedicate time to care for yourself, too. While you may feel uncertain or guilty about taking care of yourself, engaging in self-care practices makes caregivers stronger and more resilient, helping them manage stress, reduce burnout, and provide better care.
However, self-care involves more than just taking the occasional break–it’s about doing activities that support your well-being. To help you determine what that means for you, consider the following types of self-care:
- Physical
- Mental & Emotional
- Social & Relationship
- Spiritual
Shift Your Perspective: We often think of self-care as a luxurious experience, like a long bubble bath or taking an expensive vacation. Thinking of self-care this way can make us regard it as unrealistic or too time-consuming, leading us to avoid taking time for ourselves altogether. Remind yourself that you can make self-care anything you want it to be, as long as it’s meaningful to you. |
Building A Self-Care Plan
Everyone’s self-care plan is unique–but try to avoid focusing too much on just one type of self-care. Instead, do your best to engage in each of the self-care areas to help support balance and wellness. For example, only focusing on physical health may cause your social, emotional, and spiritual health to suffer.
Check out the activities under each type of self-care and take note of which ones you already do in each category. You can print this article and circle or star any activities you think you could benefit from doing more of.
Self-Care Activities
Physical Self-CareEat nourishing foods Eat regularly Participate in physical activity Get enough sleep Rest when you’re sick Take care of personal hygiene Go on a walk or play a sportGo to medical appointmentsFollow medical recommendations | Spiritual Self-Care Set aside time for thought and reflectionRecognize what gives meaning to your life Live according to your values Participate in a cause that’s meaningful to you Spend time in nature MeditatePray |
Social & Relationship Self-Care Spend time with friends and people you like Call or write to friends and family far away Meet new people Have stimulating, meaningful conversations Spend romantic time with your partner Keep in touch with old friends Ask others for help when needed Do enjoyable activities with othersShare a fear, hope, or secret with someone you trust | Mental & Emotional Self-Care Reflect on your strengths and achievements Take time off from responsibilities Participate in hobbies Turn off distractions like text messages and emails Find reasons to laugh Express your feelings in a healthy way, like talking, creating art, or writing Take time to notice your thoughts and feelings Write in a journalIdentify comforting activities like taking a bath or watching a favorite movie Read a book Learn something new |
Balancing Fun & Achievement
When deciding on your self-care activities, consider if the activity will bring you a sense of enjoyment or achievement. Both types of activities are important and will generate positive feelings. Try to include both types of activities in your self-care plan.
Prioritize Self-Care
You may be wondering how you’ll find time for self-care in an already busy schedule. While you can’t magically find more time in the day, you can practice exercising control and saying no sometimes to prioritize your needs. You may feel some guilt when doing this, but remind yourself that your needs are just as important as anyone else’s. Some caregivers find it helpful to remind themselves, “You can’t pour from an empty cup”. While it can be challenging to say “No”, it’s a skill you can practice just like any other!
Getting Started On Your Self-Care Plan
Even though you might feel like you don’t have enough energy to engage in self-care, most people experience increased energy once the activity is completed. Getting started can be the most challenging part. For example, taking a walk around the block may seem daunting–but once you return home, you may find you have a clear mind and feel more positive.
Similar to how your care recipient follows a care plan to support their health and treatment goals, you can write down a specific self-care plan for yourself. You’re more likely to add self-care activities to your day if you make a plan.
Pick an activity from one of the four areas of self-care that you’d like to try to do more often. Try answering the questions below to make your own self-care plan.
My Self-Care Plan
What would you like to do? | Example: Spend time reading a book for enjoyment |
What type of self-care is this? | Example: Mental and emotional self-care |
Where and when will you do it? | Example: At home, after dinner Monday – Friday |
How long will it take? | Example: 15-20 minutes each night |
When will you start? | Example: Tonight |
Who can you check in with? | Example: I can tell my spouse about my plan and progress |
3 Types of Stress in Burnout
3 Types of Stress in Burnout
Each type of stress contributes to burnout differently. Learn about how physical, mental, and emotional stress are impacting your situation.
It’s Different Than Being Tired
Burnout happens when caregivers endure prolonged stress from the demands of their caring role. It isn’t the caregivers’ fault–they often have to take on too much because there’s not enough help or resources. These demands become overwhelming, and caregivers often don’t get the support they need.
You might feel guilty about asking for help or doing something for yourself–but the longer you don’t do it, the worse the burnout will get. Over time, it can affect how you care for yourself and your care recipient.
Burnout affects physical, emotional, and mental health. You might notice signs like:
- Trouble sleeping
- Changes in appetite or weight
- Getting sick more often
- Anxiety and depression
- Fatigue or lack of energy for tasks
- Difficulty concentrating
- Withdrawing from social activities or hobbies
- Anger towards your care recipient
- Losing control emotionally or physically
- Increased substance use (like alcohol or nicotine)
- Thoughts of wanting to hurt yourself or your care recipient
Consider This: Wondering if you have compassion fatigue? Check out Trualta’s article “Compassion Fatigue: What Is It?” to find out. |
Physical, Mental, & Emotional Stress
In caregiver burnout, you’ll likely be experiencing at least one of these sources of stress (if not a combination of all three):
- Physical Stress comes from tasks that can be seen by you and others. These tasks need to be done, like helping your care recipient eat, bathe, or get to appointments.
- Mental Stress comes from doing tasks that aren’t seen, but are necessary. These could include organizing medications, coordinating your care recipient’s schedule, dealing with insurance, or deciding how to manage events like holidays.
- Emotional Stress comes from the emotions you experience on a daily basis, like grief, worry, anger and dread. It may also come from being the main source of emotional support for your care recipient or others, being exposed to emotionally challenging situations like hospitalizations or family conflict, or sharing difficult updates to family members.
Other Types Of Stress
You may also be experiencing other sources of stress in your life, whether directly or indirectly related to your caregiving role. Examples include:
- Personal stressors like living with chronic illness.
- Environmental stressors like financial problems or responsibilities of life (such as parenting, work, or caring for your own needs)
- Social stressors like challenging relationships with others.
These all contribute to burnout, too. But to keep it simple, we’ll focus on how all stressors can amplify those first three.
Your Biggest Stressors
The biggest barrier that caregivers face in noticing burnout is that they don’t take time to consider what’s contributing to their stress the most. Being aware of your stressors can help you figure out what you need to do to start healing your burnout.
Start by making a list of tasks you do in a day (or even a week) and try to determine which ones are the most stressful and why. Pay close attention to causes of emotional stress, as these often get missed. Doing this might help you identify which activities you can seek support with (or who else might be able to take them on).
Consider This: In addition to the hands-on care tasks you do for your care recipient, don’t forget to include tasks like phoning medical professionals and service providers. Navigating your way through different systems can be equally, if not more, exhausting and stressful. |
The Role Of Emotional Stress
Emotional stress plays a major role in exhaustion. Although you may still experience positive emotions, it can feel like a rollercoaster when negative ones come into play throughout the day. When this happens, it can be overwhelming and even harder to manage responsibilities. Below are common symptoms of emotional stress and how they can come up in care situations.
- Anger: You may feel like your situation is unfair, like others aren’t helping as much as they could, or that the healthcare system or your care recipient are making things harder than they need to be.
- Defeat: You may feel like no matter how hard you try or how much you do, it’s not going to work out. You might feel like giving up.
- Anxiety: You may feel anxious about the future of your care recipient’s illness, or not meeting your expectations of providing all the care you want to.
- Overwhelmed: You may feel hopeless about how exhausted you feel, or like nothing will ever change with your busy routine, with no end in sight.
- Grief: You may mourn the loss of your old life, spare time or hobbies, or who your care recipient used to be.
- Dread: You may dread appointments, receiving difficult news, talking to particular family members, or even certain holidays, depending on their significance or what you worry about.
- Guilt: You may feel guilty about feeling anger or dread, longing for what your life looked like before caregiving, having intrusive thoughts about yourself or your care recipient, or about taking any time for yourself (even if it’s for your basic needs).
Wheel Of Emotions
It can be hard to identify and express what emotions you’re feeling–especially if you’re experiencing many at once! Take a few moments of self-reflection. Start in the middle, working your way to the outside of the wheel.
Caregiver Guilt
Caregiver Guilt
Many caregivers experience feelings of guilt. Read this article for helpful skills on how to cope with these feelings.
Complex feelings like guilt, resentment, and frustration are common to experience in your caregiving journey. You’ll likely experience them at one time or another, and they can come about differently for every person and their unique situation. Learn more about how to recognize guilt, as well as some helpful strategies to help you cope with it.
What Does Caregiver Guilt Look Like?
People often experience guilt when they feel real or perceived responsibility for something negative that happened. Whatever the case, it’s important to examine your feelings of guilt and what you can do to address them. As a caregiver, you may have experienced feelings of guilt from time to time–whether you realize it or not. It may come up in different ways. You may feel guilty about:
- Making a hard decision, like moving your care recipient out of their home
- Wanting a break from caregiving or from your care recipient
- Becoming angry or irritated with your care recipient
- Your relationship with your care recipient before their change in health
Guilt can also look like:
- Comparing yourself to other caregivers
- Feeling like a burden for accepting help from others
- Believing you could have prevented something bad from happening
Expert Tip: Remind yourself that it’s normal and okay to feel this way from time to time. However, if you’re noticing these thoughts and feelings coming up often, it may be worth seeking support from a mental health professional–especially if you notice signs of anxiety or other mood-related changes. |
Is Guilt Helpful Or Harmful?
Guilt isn’t always bad. Sometimes, it can lead us to make helpful changes to the way we act. For instance, if you have a big argument with someone, guilt might motivate you to apologize and repair the relationship. In these cases, you should take responsibility and forgive yourself. Forgiving yourself is a key step in being able to move on from guilt. Remind yourself that you’re human–and humans make mistakes! Nobody is perfect.
However, guilt can also come up in situations that you can’t change. You may feel responsible for something that you had no control over. In these cases, guilt can be harmful. If you don’t address guilt, it can impact your relationships with the people around you.
3 Strategies To Address Caregiver Guilt
Shift Your Perspective
Ask yourself the following questions:
- “What are the facts?” Take a pause and think about the events that occurred that were in your control vs. not in your control. Feeling guilty doesn’t always mean a situation can be changed.
- “What is realistic for your situation?” If you’re trying to do too much and not meeting your expectations, you may be setting yourself up to feel guilty. Remind yourself that you’re doing the best you can.
- “Did I make the best decision with the information I had at that time?” You can only make decisions based on what you know in the present. When thinking about past decisions, the best choice can seem more obvious. Remember that you couldn’t have predicted the future, and be kind to yourself.
- “What would I say to a friend who was experiencing caregiver guilt?” Often, we’re kinder to our friends than we are to ourselves. You might take the opportunity to remind your friend that they’re doing the best they can to juggle all the demands of life and caregiving.
Seek Support
A helpful way to navigate feelings of caregiver guilt is to seek support from others. In addition to being able to get other perspectives and feel heard, connecting socially is important to maintain your well-being. Here are some helpful informal and formal sources of support:
- Friends
- Family members
- Other caregivers
- A caregiver support group
- Faith or spiritual leaders
- Mental health professionals
Set Realistic Caregiving Goals
If you frequently experience caregiver guilt, write down your definition of what realistic caregiving looks like for you. This will help remind you of what’s possible for your situation and will give you realistic goals to aim for. When writing your definition, ask yourself the following questions to guide you:
- “What are your limits?” You may not be able to meet every caregiving demand while balancing your health, work, and life. How much time and how often can you realistically provide support?
- “What are your caregiving priorities?” Some tasks are essential, and some are nice to do. You can write down everything you do or want to do and then circle the most important ones.
- “What tasks are most important for you to do with your care recipient?” Certain tasks may go more smoothly if they’re done by you rather than someone else. In those cases, are you able to lighten your load in other ways? For example, if you help bathe your care recipient, someone else could run errands during that time. Connect with your extended support system and see if anyone is available to assist.
- “Can you care for your care recipient in other ways?” If you can’t provide hands-on care, brainstorm other ways to help. For example, making meals or picking up prescriptions.
What are ‘Events’?
Connect with caregivers who understand, from the comfort of home. Whether you’re looking for new ideas or just a space to share, our online events bring people together in meaningful ways.
Support Groups
A welcoming online space where caregivers connect, share, and learn in real-time with the support of experienced hosts
Webinars
Expert insights on the topics that matter to caregivers, with real-time chat for connection and shared experiences.
Anonymous Groups
A popular chat-only support group for caregivers. No mic, no camera – just a safe space led by experienced hosts.
Meet Some Of Our Hosts
Jacquelle Bon-Acosta
BPH, M.Ed.
Monique Frahm
Registered Nurse, CDP
Watch Some of Our Past Events
Legal Planning
Legal Planning
What would happen if you were suddenly unable to make decisions for yourself? Whether it’s a car accident, an unexpected illness, or aging-related conditions like dementia, being unprepared can leave your loved ones without legal authority to help.
Grief in Caregiving
Grief in Caregiving
Can you grieve and be grateful at the same time? In this heartfelt and reflective talk, we explore a transformative strategy for caregivers and anyone facing loss: allowing grief and gratitude to coexist.
Dementia Care 101
Dementia Care 101
Caring for someone with dementia can be challenging. In this short, supportive video, we introduce the ACE Method for dementia communication.
These simple yet powerful steps help reduce frustration, build trust, and create more meaningful moments with your loved one.
Connect with Other Caregivers Like You
A space for real conversations, shared experiences, and support from those who understand.
Connect
Join real conversations, build relationships, and find support from caregivers who understand.
Share
Share your story, ask questions, and offer encouragement. Your voice makes a difference.
React
A simple way to show support. Acknowledge experiences and remind others they’re not alone.
Check Out Some Popular Posts
See what caregivers are sharing inside the forum. All posts are anonymous, creating a safe space for open conversations.
Caregiver29359
Frustrated at times
Just wondering if anyone has experienced their loved one refusing to take the medications? I put it in a small medicine cup and leave it on the counter with water. Sometimes he refuses to take them. When I remind him to take them sometimes he gets grumpy and tells me to quit nagging him. Any advice?
Replying to “Caregiver29359”:
Caregiver29359
Yes! My mother will be upset when I don’t lay her pills out ahead of time but when I give them to her day by day she does not take them. I have to stand there to make her take her medicine. That’s when she gets mad and yell at me for treating her like a child. She gets really angry.
Caregiver24119
Do you feel like people don’t understand?
I tried talking to a friend about how stressed I’ve been, and she said, ‘You should take a vacation!’ Like that’s even possible! I don’t think people get how hard caregiving is. How do you deal when people don’t understand?
Replying to “Caregiver24119”:
Caregiver29808
I hate when I try to talk to the people in my life and their response is to put her in a nursing home. Don’t you think I’ve considered that? And the dr i took gma to last week actually guilted me for not putting her in one!! I left that appointment in tears and to me that is unacceptable. Where’s the compassion?
Caregiver2736
Coping with Caregiver Guilt
Caregiver guilt is something so many of us struggle with—whether it’s about taking a break, feeling frustrated, or wondering if we’re doing the right thing. How do you cope with these feelings? Share your thoughts or tips. Let’s support each other in this journey. 💙
Replying to “Caregiver2736”:
Caregiver2740
Thank you for sharing this—it really resonates with me. I’ve definitely felt guilty about taking time for myself or not having enough patience during hard days. What’s helped me is reminding myself that I’m only human and can’t do everything perfectly.