Caring for your aging parents is one of the kindest things you can do, but it’s also one of the most challenging. It can be difficult to balance work, maintaining your home, raising your children, and caring for your parents, let alone finding a minute or two for yourself! Caregiver burnout is a real thing, so it’s important to seek support to help you cope. Here are four helpful support groups for aging parent caregivers. 

1. Caring for Elderly Parents

Caregiving doesn’t always happen on a strict schedule. Your aging parents may need you at any time of the day or night, or you may have difficulty attending in-person meetings during the hours they are held. The Caring for Elderly Parents support group helps you connect with other caregivers throughout the world, at any time of the day or night. 

Whether you are looking for advice from others who have been in your situation or emotional support to cope with challenging times, this virtual support group helps you meet other caregivers who know what you’re going through. And with more than 30,000 members, you’re sure to find others to connect with at times that work for you. 

2. Caregiving Through Loss and Grief

Caring for aging parents can be emotionally taxing, and grief is part of the process. Sometimes, you need to care for one aging parent while going through the grief of losing another. Hospice Yukon’s Caregiving Through Loss and Grief course helps you connect with others and cope with the grief that accompanies caregiving.

The next course will be held on Tuesdays from January 21, 2025 to February 18, 2025. Contact Hospice Yukon for more information or to register.

3. The Alzheimer Society of B.C.

The Alzheimer Society of B.C. offers a caregiver support group at 2:00 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of each month for caregivers of seniors living with dementia. It’s a safe place for caregivers to connect with one another, share caregiving tips, and learn more about caring for a loved one with dementia. The meetings are held through Zoom.

Additionally, if your aging parent is in the early stages of dementia, the Alzheimer Society of B.C. also offers a support group for seniors living with dementia. It can be helpful for both seniors and their caregivers to attend support groups.

4. Caregivers Connect 

Caregiver's Connect offers opportunities for caregivers across British Columbia to connect through virtual support groups. Two groups are held to accommodate different schedules, but both groups bring together Canadians who have the mutual experience of caring for an aging loved one.

The first group meets on the second Thursday of each month from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The second group, designed for caregivers who work during the day, runs from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month.

Caring for an aging parent is both challenging and rewarding. Support groups like these can help you cope and manage your emotions. In some cases, particularly when aging parents could be independent with some modifications to their environment, it may be helpful to consider a move to independent living. Learn more about when to have the independent living talk, or book a tour to see whether Normandy Living is right for your senior loved one.