If you're aged 40+ today,
there's a 50/50 chance you'll be a family caregiver
within the next 5 years.
Are you ready for your caregiving journey?
Statistics show that only about 5% of families have taken the necessary steps to develop a fully thought-out care plan for their aging loved ones - it may be your parents, or your grandparents. Or your spouse or partner. Or a favorite aunt or uncle. Or even a close friend. For the vast majority, it takes a “trigger event” (a fall or diagnosis of illness such as cancer, Parkinson’s, dementia, Alzheimer’s, etc.) to force everyone to spring into action.
As difficult as things are right now, we also know that by 2030, there'll be 10 MILLION MORE folks aged 65+, the year when all baby boomers will have turned 65.
In the best case, the average time for making decisions about assisted living (or in-home help) is 2~3 months, with serious decisions being made under great duress.
AMI founder Debbie Howard's purpose with The Caregiving Journey is to help you to:
- Plan and prepare better - and more in advance - so you have more options when the going gets tough
- Take better care of yourself while you are caregiving
- Inspire your options with “relaunching” once caregiving is done
The latest Caregiving in the U.S. 2025 report (AARP and National Alliance for Caregivers-NAC) shows there are now at least 63 million family caregivers nationwide - 59 million caring for an adult 50+. That’s 24% of all U.S. adults, and a 45% increase in the past 10 years.
Caregiving is an act of love, but it’s also REALLY hard. You’re filling critical gaps in a strained healthcare system, providing support valued at hundreds of billions of dollars each year - more than the annual Medicare budget.
The toll is real. Many caregivers experience chronic stress, exhaustion, and financial strain. Consider these realities from the 2025 study:
- Most caregivers work full- or part-time
- 1 in 3 are sandwiched between caring for both older parents and children
- Half or more report high emotional, physical, or financial strain
- Care hours keep rising (to 27 hrs per week in 2025)
- Over half perform increasingly-complex medical tasks with little or no training
For better ease and grace in caregiving ...
The need is compelling for better preparation before a trigger event occurs. You may not be able to "fix" it, but certainly, you can choose to make your own caregiving journey more manageable with better:
- "Self-care” both before and during caregiving
- Planning for emergencies, as well as financial, legal, medical, and dwelling choices
- Relaunching of one’s own life once caregiving is done
Aging Matters International works deeply on these fronts.
This is personal...
Launching Aging Matters International (AMI) is a very personal “Act II” for Debbie Howard, who served as the live-in caregiver for her mom following her mom’s diagnosis with lung cancer back in 2007.
Since then, it’s been Debbie’s dream to draw on that experience, married with her 40 years as a market research professional and entrepreneur, to provide information, guidance, and inspiration to caregivers as they navigate their own caregiving journeys.
For individuals, THIS website (https://www.thecaregivingjourney.com) provides a number of practical resources for individuals (regular newsletter and blog, tips library, AMI Caregiver Resources Guide, AMI Planning Checklist, and private FaceBook group).
For companies, a companion website (https://www.thecaregivingcrisis.com) provides perspectives for moving forward, along with complimentary "how-to" resources for businesses (i.e., AMI Idea Generator Worksheets: Programs Repurposing and Augmentation, Caregiver-related KPIs, Leveraging Employee Surveys, Employee Touchpoints, Leadership Opportunities).