New Year’s Resolutions for Family Caregivers: Starting 2027 with the Right Support

If you’re a family caregiver heading into the new year, you’ve probably already made and broken a dozen private promises to yourself this past year: I’ll take a day off. I’ll see my own doctor. I’ll ask for help.  I’ll stop feeling guilty.

This year, make resolutions you can actually keep — not through willpower, but through structure. Here are five resolutions for 2027, each backed by a specific action that makes it real.

Resolution 1: I Will Take Regular Daytime Breaks

The action: Enroll your loved one in adult day care at SarahCare Jenkintown. Three to five days per week, your loved one attends a structured program with professionals. You get six to ten hours of reliable daytime relief — not a one-time respite, but a built-in, recurring break that’s on the calendar every week.

This isn’t an indulgence. It’s the single most effective intervention for caregiver burnout. Caregivers who use adult day services regularly have lower rates of depression, better physical health, and keep their loved one at home longer before institutional placement becomes necessary.

Resolution 2: I Will Get Paid for the Care I Provide

The action: If you’re providing daily care for a family member and not being compensated, explore Participant-Directed Services through CareChoice. Pennsylvania Medicaid may pay you $13.50 to
$18.00/hour for the care you’re already providing during evenings and weekends (while SarahCare handles daytime).
Getting paid doesn’t change what you do. It changes your financial reality, your sense of professional recognition, and your ability to sustain the caregiving long-term.

Resolution 3: I Will See My Own Doctor

The action: Schedule the appointment this week — the physical, the dental cleaning, the specialist visit you’ve been postponing. Block the time on your calendar, and use your loved one’s SarahCare day as the coverage. You can’t provide good care if you’re not healthy yourself, and you know this — you’ve just been ignoring it.

Resolution 4: I Will Ask for Help Before I Hit the Wall

The action: Identify one specific request you’ll make. Ask a sibling to cover one weekend a month. Ask CareChoice about adding respite care to the care plan. Ask SarahCare about adding a fifth day to the
weekly schedule. The request doesn’t have to be dramatic. It has to be specific and spoken out loud.

Resolution 5: I Will Stop Feeling Guilty

The action: This one has no form to fill out. But it starts with accepting a truth: using SarahCare, using CareChoice, using respite — none of these are abandoning your loved one. They are the infrastructure that makes sustainable care possible. The guilt tells you that needing help means you’re failing. The evidence says the opposite: caregivers who use support systems provide better care for longer.

Making the Resolutions Stick
The difference between a resolution that sticks and one that doesn’t is usually structural support. “I’ll take breaks” is a wish. “My mother attends SarahCare three days a week” is a plan. “I’ll get paid” is an
intention. “I’m enrolled in PDS through CareChoice and my first paycheck arrives January 15” is a reality.
If 2026 was the year you ran on fumes, let 2027 be the year you build the support structure that makes caregiving sustainable — for you and for the person you care for.
SarahCare → Start the conversation CareChoice → Get paid for the care you give
Written by Gary Murray, Chief Marketing Officer | CareChoice / SarahCare