Family caregivers supporting loved ones through hospice are facing a worsening crisis of financial strain, isolation, and deteriorating personal health, according to new research published this week — findings that arrive as the nation’s informal care workforce has grown by nearly half since 2015.
About 75 percent of hospice family caregivers report increased stress or anxiety as their most significant burden, and one in three say their mental health has measurably declined, Hospice News reported July 28, citing survey data from multiple recent studies. Family caregivers now account for nearly a quarter of the U.S. adult population, a 45 percent increase since 2015.
“The takeaway is clear: families need more support, and they need it earlier,” said Martin Hernandez, general manager of family sales and head of home care services at A Place for Mom.
Financial Pressure Compounds Emotional Strain
Financial hardship and social isolation rank as the two most acute challenges for hospice caregivers, with the costs of end-of-life care at home proving difficult for many families to absorb.
A Place for Mom’s 2026 Home Care and Family Caregiving report, based on a Morning Light Strategy survey of 708 U.S. family caregivers conducted in April, put the national median cost of professional home care at $34 per hour. Families using 20 hours of paid help weekly face annual costs nearing $35,500; those requiring 44 hours spend more than $78,000 per year. When those costs become unsustainable, care often stops: 45 percent of families who discontinued professional support cited affordability as the reason.
The financial toll falls hardest on lower-income households. Families earning less than $50,000 annually experience all 13 identified categories of financial hardship at higher rates than wealthier counterparts — partly because they begin caregiving with fewer financial reserves, according to a 2026 study published by the National Institutes of Health that tracked financial impacts across two survey cohorts. One in five family caregivers overall reported high financial strain directly tied to their caregiving role.
Despite bringing on professional care, families do not step back. Caregivers in the A Place for Mom study maintained an average of five to six ongoing responsibilities — emotional support, medical appointment coordination, transportation, and meal preparation among them — and spent 12 to 13 hours per week coordinating or overseeing paid care.
The Weight of Long-Duration Care
The psychological toll of caregiving intensifies the longer it continues, a pattern documented in a peer-reviewed study published in Frontiers in Public Health in June 2026. Among 345 hospice family caregivers studied by Yang et al. in Wenzhou, China, the average caregiving day lasted 17.54 hours. Women made up 71.6 percent of the study sample, with a mean caregiver age of 58.44 years.
The study found that caregiving competence — the skills and confidence a caregiver builds over time — initially provides a meaningful buffer against burnout. That protection erodes as caregiving duration extends.
“The protective effect of caregiving competence on burden was stronger among caregivers with shorter caregiving duration and weakened as caregiving duration increased,” the researchers wrote. The authors attributed this pattern to “adaptation fatigue,” a gradual depletion of coping capacity that accumulates regardless of a caregiver’s skill level. Emotional management was identified as caregivers’ weakest competence domain across the sample.
Broader statistics support the picture of a population under sustained physical and psychological pressure. Research compiled across multiple studies found that approximately 64 percent of family caregivers report high emotional stress, 45 percent report high physical strain, and roughly one-third report moderate to severe anxiety.
Gaps in Guidance
A recurring theme across recent research is that caregivers are making high-stakes decisions without adequate information or structural support. A Place for Mom’s 2026 report found that 88 percent of family caregivers are actively seeking more guidance about understanding their options.
More than six in 10 surveyed families — 63 percent — said their primary motivation for pursuing home care was their loved one’s preference to remain at home. Yet the same research shows they are navigating that goal with insufficient practical knowledge.
Industry observers say the data points to a structural gap in the hospice system. While hospices are required under the Medicare Hospice Benefit to provide family caregiver support, resources remain unevenly distributed. Research has consistently found that caregivers of patients with dementia and other long-trajectory illnesses face particular shortfalls, as the current benefit structure does not reflect the true scope of support these cases require.
Caregivers widely favor policy interventions that would ease the financial burden directly: income tax credits, paid family leave, and direct payment programs for family caregivers all received strong support in the NIH-published survey.
Why This Matters for Home Care
As hospice utilization rises and more end-of-life care shifts to the home, family caregivers absorb not only the emotional weight of that role but the physical demands — repositioning, transferring, and supporting mobility for a loved one whose condition is declining. Equipment designed for this caregiving context can reduce physical strain for both the person receiving care and the family member providing it. Families navigating home-based hospice care can explore options at SonderCare.
