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For the last hundred years, we have slowly moved away from one of our most important human responsibilities: community taking care of community.
Today, millions of family caregivers are expected to carry an enormous responsibility almost entirely alone. They are overwhelmed, overburdened, exhausted, lonely, and scared. Many are forced to put their own health, relationships, careers, and basic needs aside while caring for someone they love.
This cannot—and should not—be done by one person.
In this deeply heartfelt episode of Ask a Death Doula, Suzanne shares a new way forward for supporting family caregivers, inspired by Dolly Parton’s honesty about caring for her beloved husband and allowing her own health needs to go unattended.
Suzanne hears this same story from caregivers every day:
“I don’t have time to go to my own doctor.”
“I can’t leave my loved one alone.”
“I haven’t slept through the night in months.”
“No one understands how hard this is.”
Caregiving has become a silent crisis—but it does not have to remain this way.
For generations, caregiving was shared. Families, friends, neighbors, and communities understood that everyone had a role to play.
It is time to return to that understanding.
Through Doulagivers Communities for Aging and End of Life, certified Doulagivers are creating local hubs where caregivers and families can come to:
These community hubs represent a new—and deeply familiar—way forward: people caring for one another at the local level.
Do not wait for the caregiver to ask for help. Most caregivers are too overwhelmed to identify what they need, coordinate assistance, or reach out.
Simply show up.
You can:
Small acts become powerful when they are shared across a community.
Download and print the Doulagivers Support System Scheduler linked below. Invite family members, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and members of your faith or community groups to each choose one way they can help.
When many people do a little, no one person has to carry everything.
Dolly has given so much love, joy, and generosity to the world. By courageously sharing the reality of caregiving—and the ways caregivers can neglect their own needs—she has helped shine a light on a crisis that has remained invisible for far too long.
Thank you, Dolly, for raising awareness.
Let this be another beautiful gift: a reminder that caregivers need care, too.
Let’s honor Dolly by changing how we support the caregivers in our own lives. Let’s see them. Let’s hear them. Let’s show up for them.
Let’s bring back community taking care of community.
And let’s do it for Dolly.
Caregiving should never be carried by one person alone.
Supporting caregivers is not merely a kind gesture. It is our shared human responsibility.
