SC Barg
There's a belief I encounter constantly — at our Fearless Caregiver Conferences, in mediation sessions, in the quiet conversations after a presentation when someone finally says the thing they couldn't say in front of a room full of people.
It goes something like this: A good caregiver handles it themselves.
I understand where it comes from. Love. Loyalty. Pride. The feeling that asking for outside help means you've failed the person counting on you most.
I want to say this as clearly as I know how: that belief is not protecting your loved one. It is isolating you both.
In 30 years of publishing Today's Caregiver and working as an Elder Mediator, I have never once seen a caregiver successfully go it entirely alone for the long haul. Not the most devoted daughter. Not the most loving spouse. Not the most capable, tireless caregiver I've ever met.
Because caregiving, done well and sustained over time, is not a one-person job. It was never designed to be.
The caregivers who navigate this journey most successfully — the ones who maintain their health, preserve their relationships, and provide genuinely good care over years — almost always have one thing in common: they built a team, they build a company focused on the management of caring for their loved one. My brother Gary called your new role as CEO of Caring For Your Loved One, Inc.
The similarities of how a big corporate CEO and your role as the CEO of Caring For Our Loved One, Inc. as so similar, understand the dictionary’s description – the CEO is responsible for making major decisions, setting overall strategy, and managing the organization's resources. Do you get it?
At every Fearless Caregiver Conference, I watch something happen that never gets old. People walk in depleted and isolated, convinced they are uniquely alone in what they're carrying. And then they spend a day surrounded by people who truly understand — and something visibly shifts. Not because their situation changed. Because they remembered they don't have to carry it alone.
That is where we're going next. Who belongs on your team— and how to actually build one.
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