Where to start when you become a caregiver: free help in the US
From Centis, a free care notebook you talk to. Everything in this guide works with pen and paper too.
Caring for a parent often starts without a decision. A fall, a diagnosis, a phone call from a neighbor, and suddenly you’re the one people ask.
The first weeks bring a lot of questions at once: who can help at home, how Medicare works, what happens if you need a break. Free help exists for most of them, and knowing where to start saves a lot of searching.
This page lists organizations in the US that families can contact, sorted by what you need. It points you to who can help. It doesn’t tell you what to decide.
Where to start, by what you need
- Help near your parent: meals, rides, help at home, local caregiver programsEldercare Locator (opens in a new tab) (US Administration for Community Living)Call or text 1-800-677-1116, or search at eldercare.acl.gov
- Programs in your parent’s state, plus guides to caregivingFamily Caregiver Alliance: Services by State (opens in a new tab)Pick a state on the page, or call 800-445-8106
- Memory loss, Alzheimer’s or another dementiaAlzheimer’s Association 24/7 Helpline (opens in a new tab)800-272-3900, day or night, free
- Medicare: coverage, plans, costsSHIP, the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (opens in a new tab)Choose your state at shiphelp.org, or call 877-839-2675
- A break: someone to step in for a whileARCH National Respite Network: Find a Respite Provider (opens in a new tab)Search on the page
- Caring for a veteranVA Caregiver Support Program (opens in a new tab)1-855-260-3274, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern
- Whether your parent’s doctor can talk to youFamily Members and Friends (opens in a new tab) (US Department of Health and Human Services)Read on the page
If you only call one, the Eldercare Locator is the broadest starting point: it connects you to services for older adults and their families where your parent lives.
What each one does
Eldercare Locator. A public service of the Administration for Community Living, part of the US Department of Health and Human Services. It connects people to services for older adults and their families in their community. You can call or text trained staff, or use chat and email.
Family Caregiver Alliance. A nonprofit for family caregivers. Its Services by State tool lists public, nonprofit and private programs near the person you care for, whether they live at home or in a care facility: government health and disability programs, legal resources, disease-specific organizations and more.
Alzheimer’s Association Helpline. Free, around the clock, every day of the year, in more than 200 languages. Calls are answered by staff and by care consultants with master’s-level training in dementia. They cover memory loss and dementia, what to do after a diagnosis, care planning, caregiver stress, safety, legal and financial planning, and local resources.
SHIP. Each state has a State Health Insurance Assistance Program offering one-on-one help with Medicare from what it calls a trusted, unbiased source: coverage options, and searches for long-term care programs.
ARCH National Respite Network. Respite is care that gives a family caregiver a break, planned or in an emergency. ARCH helps families find respite and crisis care services, and its Find a Respite Provider search is the place to look for one.
VA Caregiver Support Program. For caregivers of veterans enrolled in VA health care, from any era of service. Some programs have stricter eligibility. The Caregiver Support Line answers questions about enrolling and connects you with local resources.
HHS on HIPAA and family members. The US Department of Health and Human Services explains when a doctor may share information with family who are involved in a patient’s care.
Before you call: what to have in front of you
The first questions are usually the same, and having the answers ready makes a call shorter.
- Where your parent lives, including the ZIP code. Local services are organized by area.
- Their insurance: Medicare, Medicaid, a Medicare plan, or VA health care, with the cards nearby.
- What’s going on, in a sentence or two: “She’s living alone and can’t drive any more” or “He was just diagnosed with dementia.”
- What you’re hoping for: help at home, a break, someone to explain Medicare.
- Their doctors and medications, if the call is about care. The aging parents checklist keeps these on one page.
Write down what you’re told: who you spoke to, the number, and what happens next. A notebook works. So does Centis, which turns what you say after a call into a dated note you can find later.
What these are not for
- Emergencies. None of these is an emergency line. In an emergency, call 911.
- Medical decisions. These organizations explain services and point you to help. What a symptom means, or whether a treatment is right, is for your parent’s doctor.
- Outside the US. Every organization here is American. Other countries have their own.
Keeping track as you go
One call often leads to three more: a referral, a form, a callback next week. It helps to keep it all in one place, with dates, so you’re not piecing it together from memory.
If writing it down is what keeps slipping, Centis lets you say it out loud instead. You talk for thirty seconds after a call or a visit, and it keeps a dated note in your own words that you can ask about later: “what did the Medicare counselor say?” It’s free, and you can use it on your own without an account.