In the United States, there are an estimated 1.4 million caregiving youth (children under the age of 18), and nearly 10 million Millennial caregivers (aged 18-34 years old). Of the millions of young caregivers, I believe every single one is an advocate. Advocacy means...
This Saturday my older brother will graduate magna cum laude from Volunteer State Community College with his Associate’s degree in Computer Information Technology. While every degree is special, this one is particularly significant. Earning this degree was a...
In the United States, there are at least 1.4 million children and 5.5 million young adults who provide unpaid care to family members with disabilities, mental illnesses, injuries sustained through military service, and substance abuse issues. Here's what you need to...
Like a kid before Christmas, I eagerly await the start of November every year. As November marks the dedicated month for family caregivers, I hold my breath as the tributes, photo spotlights, and news features begin to trickle across my computer screen. I read...
Ambiguous loss, as coined by Dr. Pauline Boss, refers to the loss a person experiences when there is a lack of resolution or clarity. Originally, Dr. Boss posited the theory of ambiguous loss through studying the families of soldiers missing in combat. There are two...
On September 11th, 2001, I remember coming home from school to watch the television, the smoke and sirens in New York City filling the screen. I was greeted by my mother who was lying in the bed, a place she knew well. Nearly two years prior, my mother underwent a...
Caregivers of ALL ages need support. Shouldn’t we simply support ALL caregivers? When I speak to the community about the needs of child and young adult caregivers, I often hear those two remarks in response. On the surface, both appear to offer unreserved support for...
Growing up in the early 2000s, I thought my older brother and I were the only millennials with a family caregiving role. When I was eleven years old, my older brother dropped out of his sophomore year in college to take care of my mother. She had undergone a...
“For, indeed, in the social jungle of human existence there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity.”[1] As Erik Erikson has so rightly typified, knowing “who you are” and “what you are about” helps us make sense of our personhood. Identity...