Most Americans don’t realize how likely they are to become a caregiver. According to the AARP 2025 Caregiving in the U.S. report, more than one in five Americans , nearly 48 million people, provided unpaid care to an adult or child with special needs in the past year. Nearly half of those caregivers are also raising children, and 61% are employed, balancing caregiving with work.

The Stanford dciX Caregiving Innovations Project highlights the reality behind these numbers: caregivers are expected to improvise and coordinate care, evaluate complex information, identify payment sources, and adapt to changing needs, often without support or guidance.

But most caregivers don’t begin by calling themselves caregivers. As one executive roundtable participant observed:

People don’t identify themselves as a caregiver. They say, ‘I’m a daughter. I guess I’m doing caregiving, but I’m a daughter.’

— Executive Roundtable participant (Stanford dciX Caregiving Innovations Project)

Caregiving rarely begins as a role we prepare for. It attaches itself quietly to an existing relationship. Tasks accumulate before there is language for what’s happening. Decisions are made before anyone asks how this work will be sustained. By the time families recognize caregiving as central to their lives, they are often improvising inside complex systems with little guidance.

Caregiving is a team sport, but the rules aren’t defined.

— Greg, caregiver interview (2025)

As a society, we plan well for certain futures. We create financial plans, draft wills, and set up trusts. But for all our attention to legal and financial readiness, we often overlook the practical, day-to-day realities of caring for another person. This creates a planning gap, a void where the operational details of health, safety, and daily life should be.

A caregiving plan helps fill that gap. Unlike a will or financial plan, it is not a static document. It is a living system for managing the mechanics of care: coordinating health needs, organizing logistics, and ensuring safety. Its purpose is clarity, continuity, and shared responsibility.

Caregiving happens in phases

When I became the caregiver for my mom, we had no practical roadmap at all — no plan for mobility changes, transportation, medication routines, home safety, or how to share responsibilities.

— Priya, caregiver interview (2025)

Most people enter caregiving through disruption: a fall, a diagnosis, a call that changes everything. From there, caregiving tends to unfold in three phases:

• The immediate need for clarity

  Urgent questions surface all at once: What needs to happen now? Who should we call? In these moments, confusion isn’t just stressful , it can be dangerous.

• Uncertainty about the future

  Decisions become less urgent but more complex. How long is this sustainable? Can care continue at home? What are the financial and emotional tradeoffs? Many caregivers describe feeling paralyzed, not from lack of effort, but lack of visibility.

• The daily grind of ongoing care

  Tasks multiply, responsibility defaults to one person, and critical information lives in someone’s head. Caregiving rarely fails because people stop caring. It fails because it becomes unsustainable.

A caregiving plan supports families across all three phases by organizing care, distributing responsibility, and preventing silent overload.

The 12 pillars of a caregiving plan

Effective caregiving isn’t one overwhelming responsibility. It’s a set of manageable tasks across twelve core areas.

1. Personal care

Bathing, dressing, toileting, mobility, feeding.

With all the talk of 401Ks and preparing a will, there isn’t any discussion on creating a plan of care or what that could look like for me.

— Lars, caregiver interview (2025)

Tip: Discuss preferences early and document daily routines to preserve dignity.

2. Medical & health management

Medications, symptoms, equipment, appointments.

Tip: Maintain a single shared record for medications and appointments.

3. Daily life tasks

Meals, laundry, shopping, transportation, paperwork.

Tip: Document weekly routines. Shared lists reduce cognitive load.

4. Care coordination & system navigation

Providers, referrals, insurance, follow-ups. Access is not coordination — someone must own the system.

Despite the enormous and growing needs of these unpaid caregivers and those in their care, there is no comprehensive infrastructure in the United States to offer support.

— Susan W. Golden, Sc.D., Director, Stanford dciX Caregiving Innovations Project

Tip: Designate a clear care lead and maintain a shared care calendar.

5. Emotional & behavioral support

Mood changes, loneliness, dementia-related behaviors.

Tip: Look for patterns and schedule regular check-ins.

6. Safety & risk management

Falls, wandering, scams, emergencies.

Tip: Identify risks early, define emergency roles, and document contact chains.

7. Technology & remote monitoring

Telehealth, wearables, portals, sensors.

Tip: Use technology to clarify decisions, not just collect data.

8. Legal & administrative tasks

Powers of attorney, directives, benefits.

Tip: Act early and set reminders for updates.

9. Caregiver self-management

Stress, respite, workload balance.

40% of caregivers report feeling stressed, and 23% say caregiving worsened their health.

— CDC

Tip: Treat caregiver capacity as a safety issue.

10. Financial management

Bills, accounts, fraud monitoring, taxes.

75% of caregivers incur out-of-pocket costs averaging $7,400 per year.

— AARP (2025)

Tip: Assign trusted oversight and automate reminders.

11. Utility & property management

Maintenance, repairs, mail, utilities.

Tip: Schedule recurring checks and seasonal maintenance.

12. Community, sharing & delegation

Coordination, communication, defined roles.

My sister and I spent weeks researching resources for our father. A central resource would have helped.

— Caregiver interview (Stanford dciX Caregiving Innovations Project, 2021)

Tip: Shared care works best when responsibility is designed, not assumed.

A caregiving plan in action

A caregiving plan is not a document you create once. It is a repeatable, living system that evolves with changing needs. Using the GOES framework: Gather, Organize, Execute, Share, families can maintain clarity and sustainable care:

• Gather: Capture routines, risks, preferences, and responsibilities while things are stable. Collect medical information, daily schedules, financial and legal documents, and key contacts.

• Organize: Review the information you’ve gathered. Enhance it by identifying gaps, clarifying roles, and anticipating what could go wrong. This step includes scenario planning: “What if Dad can no longer drive?” or “What if Mom has another fall?” By thinking through potential challenges now, families can reduce reactive stress later.

• Execute: Turn needs into concrete tasks with clear ownership. Assign responsibilities, set schedules, and make sure everyone knows who is accountable for each step.

• Share: Distribute knowledge, tasks, and plans across the care team. A shared system ensures critical information does not live in one person’s head, making caregiving sustainable and safer for everyone.

The question that changes the conversation

Most planning still starts with:

“Do we have enough money?”

A more useful question is:

“If something changed tomorrow, would we know what to do and who would help?”

Caregiving readiness doesn’t eliminate hardship. It reduces chaos, preserves dignity, and protects relationships. Awareness is where every meaningful caregiving plan begins.

Continuing the conversation

If any part of this resonates, whether you’re planning, caregiving now, or reflecting after the fact, I’d genuinely like to hear from you.

What was the hardest thing to anticipate? What do you wish had been clearer earlier?

Feel free to share whatever comes to mind. These conversations are how better tools and systems get built.

You can DM me on LinkedIn or leave a note here on Medium.

This article draws on findings from the Stanford dciX Caregiving Innovations Project (2022), AARP caregiving research, and caregiver interviews and executive roundtables conducted between 2021–2025.