Going back to school looks different when a caregiving role is part of the picture. Some students drove away from home this month wondering whether a parent would remember their medication. Whether a grandparent would be okay. Whether a sibling who needs daily support would get it without them there. For others, the role didn’t stay at home. It shifted. Care is now managed from a distance, coordinating appointments by phone, checking in daily, and rearranging schedules around someone else’s needs. The caregiving didn’t stop. It just changed shape.
Some students care for a family member’s mental health. They’re the person a parent calls when depression gets bad. The one a sibling texts at 2 a.m. Some help navigate mental health providers, crisis lines, or care systems, work that is complex and exhausting at any age. And some are dealing with something harder still: their own mental health is suffering because of what they’re carrying, without yet connecting the two.
Others are young parents, students or early-career employees, caring for a child while building a life. For them, caregiving is just Tuesday. None of these students would likely call themselves a caregiver. But that is what they are. According to the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, approximately 5 million college and graduate students are caring for an adult family member. Most never tell a faculty member or advisor what they are carrying. There is little room in college life to say: I am also doing this.
A 2023 AARP survey found that caregivers aged 18 to 34 experience more anxiety from caregiving than any other age group. Young caregivers often carry the most while having the least support and few words to describe what they are going through. And yet 81 percent say caregiving gives them a strong sense of purpose. Both things are true at once. Researchers call it time poverty, the feeling of never having enough time or energy. It shows up in rearranged schedules, missed sleep, and the background worry that never fully turns off.
The start of a new school year has a way of making things feel more real. A role has changed. A goodbye took longer than expected. HR Life & Work Connections offers confidential one-on-one consultations to U of A employees and students at any stage of the caregiving journey. Childcare Choice and Back Up Care through Bright Horizons are also available to qualifying students.
No one on this campus has to navigate caregiving alone. As a student and a caregiver, you don't need the words for it yet. You just have to tell someone what's going on.
Additional resources for student caregivers: