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The Future of Caregiving

You are not failing. The system is. A manifesto on where caregiving has to go — and who has to be by your side when it gets there.

Keepsake1 min read

You are not failing. The system is.

America has about 38 million family caregivers.

38M

family caregivers in America

About 1 in every 8 American adults.

If caregivers were a U.S. state

California
39M
Family caregivers
38M
Texas
30M
Florida
22M
New York
19M
Source: AARP & National Alliance for Caregiving — “Valuing the Invaluable” (2023 update).

Together, they provide roughly 36 billion hours of unpaid care every year.

36B

hours of unpaid care, every year

At minimum wage, that’s more than $600 billion of work the country never pays for.

Annual hours, by U.S. workforce

Family caregivers
~36B hrs
U.S. retail employees
~33B hrs
U.S. K–12 teachers
~12B hrs
Source: AARP — “Valuing the Invaluable” (2023). Comparators derived from BLS Current Employment Statistics.

Meanwhile, senior living costs many families thousands of dollars a month, and assisted living can easily reach $70,000 a year.

$70k/yr

median cost of assisted living

That’s almost an entire median household income — before food, mortgage, or anything else.

One year, in U.S. dollars

Median U.S. household income
$74,580
Assisted living (1 year)
$70,800
Avg. Social Security benefit
$22,560
Source: Genworth Cost of Care Survey (2024); U.S. Census ACS 2022 (median household income); SSA 2024 retired-worker average benefit.

So you get stuck in the middle.

Too much responsibility.

Too little support.

Too many appointments, medications, bills, benefits, family updates, and care decisions living in your head.

And when care is this fragmented, small things become crises. Appointments get missed. Instructions get forgotten. Benefits go unused. Everyone has a different version of what is going on.

But caregiving is not one-size-fits-all.

A daughter caring for a parent with dementia does not need the same support as a spouse managing Parkinson's, a son navigating Medicaid, or a family trying to make sense of sundowning for the first time.

And sometimes, the person who understands you best is not a doctor, a website, or a pamphlet. It is another caregiver who has lived through the same thing.

We believe the future of caregiving has to be different.

Not another app that gives you more work.

A persistent advocate that helps carry the work with you.

Something that remembers context, keeps your family aligned, helps coordinate next steps, connects you with people who understand, and gives you expert guidance when the situation gets confusing.

Every benefit.

Every service.

Every next step.

Every guide.

Every handoff.

One advocate by your side, 24/7.

So you can spend less time managing care, and more time being with the person you love.