Cara Anthony tries to convince her HealthQ co-host Blake Farmer that there are benefits to embracing the caregiver identity when helping an aging parent.
(Candice Evers for WPLN and KFF Health News)
When his father was diagnosed with gallbladder cancer in 2025, William Morrison immediately went into caregiving mode.
“We were in the hospital every day,” he said. “I was really playing the intermediary between the medical staff and our family and kind of helping have those conversations and push for those answers.”
One in 10 Americans say they are a caregiver for a parent 65 or older, according to 2025 Pew research. And many people in the sandwich generation — those who have both children and aging parents — start their caregiving journeys like Morrison: stepping up during a medical crisis and becoming a family caregiver essentially overnight.
