Right Now
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CAREGIVER OVERVIEW · YOU ARE NOT ALONE

You're doing something remarkable — and it's hard.

📋 Take the 22-Question Burden Self-Check

Caregiving is one of the most meaningful roles a person can take on, and also one of the most depleting. This page is the front door to four things: understanding what's happening to you, a clinical self-check, hands-on care guides, and a wellness section that brings respite, support networks, and national caregiver resources together in one place.

What do you need first?

📞 I need a phone number now 💛 I need a moment for myself 📋 I want to understand what I'm dealing with
Where to go from here

Pick the door that fits today.

It's fine to come back later for the others. Most caregivers find that one of these is what they actually need first.

Understanding Caregiver Fatigue

What's actually happening to you. The anatomy of burnout, the five stages of caregiver fatigue, common signs, and the 22-question burden self-check — all in one place.

Read the fatigue guide →

Caregiving Guides

Hands-on guides by level of need (light, moderate, full), plus the most respected training libraries: AARP, Alzheimer's Association, Mayo Clinic, Family Caregiver Alliance, Teepa Snow.

Open Caregiving Guides →

Caregiver Wellness & Support

Building a support network, real respite (including local AmeriCorps Senior Companion access), AARP support lines, VA caregiver programs, anticipatory grief, and end-of-life support.

Open Wellness →
→ Or skip straight to the 22-Question Burden Self-Check
If you're in a hard moment right now

You don't have to read anything long.

The Right Now page is for when everything feels like too much — calming, evidence-based steps for what helps from the first 60 seconds through the rest of the week. Concrete, no homework.

When you have a little more breathing room, the Caregiver Wellness page is the deeper resource — respite, support networks, anticipatory grief, and the longer ways through. Bookmark it for later.

Open Right Now → Caregiver Wellness →

Local help — Moab & Grand County

Real people, close to home.

Two human-connection programs first — then the formal medical and senior services tucked behind a tap.

Moab nonprofit · community connection & support

Moab Solutions

Visit: moab-solutions.org

Learn more

Moab Solutions believes that for every challenge, there is a solution. The organization works with what is already available in our community to build a more collaborative network — reducing waste, strengthening local connections, and helping people find their way to support that already exists nearby.

For caregivers and patients, this often matters most when basic stability is at stake. Moab Solutions may have resources for those facing housing instability or homelessness, or connections to others in the community who can help with the kind of needs that fall outside formal medical or senior services.

Local Moab nonprofit. Visit their website to see what they currently offer.

AmeriCorps Seniors
AmeriCorps Seniors · Senior Companion Program

A volunteer companion — and a real break for you.

Learn more

The Senior Companion Program places trained volunteers (age 55+) with homebound older adults for friendship, light help, and rides — and gives family caregivers genuine respite. Volunteers can help with light housekeeping, meal preparation, socialization, rides to doctor appointments, and other essential needs. Grand County is one of 15 rural Utah counties served by UServeUtah's program.

Verified May 2026. Free to qualifying older adults. Volunteers are background-checked and trained.

A Moab CareLink original — coming soon

Neighbor to Neighbor
The Bulletin Board

An organic community space — built right here in Moab — where caregivers and patients can post a real need and neighbors can respond.

See what's planned →
Local medical & senior services Grand Center, Moab Regional Hospital, Four Corners Behavioral Health, Moab Solutions, Utah ADRC, SHIP. Tap for the full list with phone numbers and addresses.

Grand Center

Senior services · congregate meals · Meals on Wheels · transportation

The hub for older-adult services in Grand County. Lunch program, activities, classes, transportation, Medicaid application help, SHIP Medicare counseling, and a warm physical place to land.

📞 (435) 259-6623
📍 182 N. 500 W., Moab

Moab Regional Hospital

Critical-access hospital · ER · primary care · specialty clinics

Grand County's only hospital. 24/7 emergency, primary care, swing-bed rehabilitation, lab, imaging, and visiting specialists. Serves caregivers and patients across Grand and surrounding counties.

📞 (435) 719-3500
📍 450 W. Williams Way, Moab

Canyonlands Care Center

36 bed long-term nursing home

An extremely limited, 36 bed long-term nursing home with a current wait-list that is more than double the bed capacity. Medicaid-certified. Best contacted directly to discuss admission timeline and current capacity.

📞 (435) 719-4400
📍 390 Williams Way, Moab, UT 84532

Grand County Hospice

End-of-life care · in-home support · bereavement support

Hospice care for residents of Grand County. In-home nursing, social work, chaplaincy, bereavement support. Medicare-certified.

📞 (435) 719-3772 (direct line)

Four Corners Community Behavioral Health

Mental health · substance use · counseling · psychiatric care

Local behavioral health services. Does not deny services based on ability to pay. Sliding scale available. Therapy, psychiatric medication management, crisis services, substance use programs.

📞 (435) 259-6131
📍 165 E. Center St., Moab

Moab Solutions

Local nonprofit · case management · community support

Community-focused nonprofit serving Moab and Grand County with case management, advocacy, and support for families navigating complex needs. Often the right first call when you don't yet know who to call.

📞 (435) 401-4685

Utah Aging & Disability Resource Connection (ADRC)

Statewide info line for older adults & caregivers

Single point-of-contact for state and federal programs: in-home services, Medicaid, caregiver support, transportation, respite. They walk you through what's available in your county.

📞 1-800-371-7897

SHIP — Medicare counseling

Free, unbiased Medicare guidance

State Health Insurance Assistance Program. Free, unbiased help with Medicare enrollment, Part D, supplements, appeals, fraud. Local counselors in Moab: Brian Scott and Charles Kulander.

📞 State line: 1-800-541-7735
📞 Local: ask at the Grand Center, (435) 259-6623

2-1-1 Utah

Housing · food · utilities · basic needs

The free statewide line for housing assistance, utility help, food programs, and basic needs across Utah. Available 24/7. Ask for "Grand County" when you call.

📞 Dial 2-1-1 (or 1-888-826-9790)

→ See the full A–Z resource index · or visit the complete Local Resources page for transportation, food, housing, support groups, and veteran services.

Caregiver Real Tools

Real tools for hard days.

Eight short, evidence-backed things you can actually do — drawn from the therapies that work. Read what fits. Ignore the rest.

Open the 8 tools

Tap any single tool below to open it.

You are allowed to set it down for an hour. Walk away. Get out of the house. Don't even think about it for a stretch. Then come back.

Why it works. The Cleveland Clinic calls this empathy fatigue — what happens when you absorb the suffering of the person you're caring for as if it were your own, with no break. The research-backed counter is not to care less. It is to set it down on purpose — for an hour, for an afternoon, for a Saturday morning. You pick it back up later. Both are choices. Your nervous system needs the gap more than your loved one needs unbroken vigilance.

Try it now (today, before the day ends)

Pick a stretch — an hour is enough — and step out. Drive into town. Walk the dog. Sit on the porch with a cup of coffee. Go to the hardware store you don't actually need anything from. Tell yourself, plainly: "I'm setting it down. It'll be there when I get back." Then actually let it go for that window. The relief comes from the stepping away, not from how long.

Source: Empathy Fatigue: How Stress and Trauma Can Take a Toll on You — Cleveland Clinic ↗

You don't have to apologize for asking in a way people can actually answer. "Let me know if you need anything" is useless. Three specific asks, written down, are gold.

Why it works. "Let me know if you need anything" is unanswerable — and a tired caregiver cannot translate it into a real request when the moment hits. Harvard Health and the APA caregiver guidance both name this directly: people say yes to specifics and no to vagueness. The work is done in advance, when you're not depleted, by writing down three real asks. Then you have them when you need them.

Try it now (5 minutes)

Open your phone notes — or grab a piece of paper. Write three specific asks you'd say yes to if someone offered them right now. For example: "Could you sit with [name] from 2 to 4 on Thursday?" · "Could you bring dinner this Sunday?" · "Could you pick up the prescription on Main Street this week?" Next time someone says "let me know if you need anything," read one of them out loud.

Source: Self-care for the caregiver — Harvard Health Publishing ↗

It's alright to do one small thing — and not wait until you feel like it. Action comes first. The feeling follows. Decades of research, one of the strongest findings in modern psychology.

Why it works. Behavioral activation (a core CBT method) is one of the most-studied behavioral treatments for depression and low mood. The counterintuitive finding from decades of research: action precedes mood, not the other way around. You don't wait until you feel like doing something. You do one tiny thing — and the feeling, when it comes, follows.

Try it now (2–10 minutes)

Pick one small thing you used to enjoy: a song on the radio, a five-minute walk to the end of the driveway, one page of a book, a hot cup of coffee at the window. Do it now. Don't wait until you "feel like it." That is the whole protocol.

Source: Behavioral Activation for Depression — Society of Clinical Psychology (APA Div. 12) ↗

You don't have to worry about everything all at once. Give worry a 15-minute slot. Outside that window, tell it: "Not now. I'll get to you at 6."

Why it works. CBT research on caregivers and chronic-illness patients identifies one specific habit — scheduled worry, sometimes called a "worry window" — that consistently reduces background anxiety. The premise is counterintuitive: instead of trying not to worry (which never works), you give worry a designated 15-minute slot in the day. Outside that window, when an anxious thought arrives, you tell it: "Not now. I'll get to you at 6." Most worries don't survive the wait. The ones that do have a place to land.

Try it now (1 minute to set up, then 15 min/day)

Pick a 15-minute window today — same time tomorrow if it helps. When an anxious thought hits before then, write it down (one or two words, a phone note works) and say: "I'll worry about this at [time]." When the window arrives, sit with the list. Cross off what no longer matters. Make a single next step on what does. Then close it until tomorrow.

Source: Managing anxiety with CBT techniques — American Psychological Association ↗

You're allowed to let the harsh thought be just a thought. "I can't do this" feels true. "I'm having the thought that I can't do this" is true — and easier to keep going past.

Why it works. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy calls this cognitive defusion — and it's one of the most-replicated findings in modern behavioral therapy. There is a meaningful difference between "I can't do this" and "I'm having the thought that I can't do this." The second is true. The first feels true but rarely is. Naming a thought as a thought reduces its grip almost immediately, even when nothing about the situation has changed.

Try it now (20 seconds)

Whatever harsh thing you've told yourself today — "I'm failing at this," "I can't do another day" — restate it: "I'm having the thought that ___." Say it twice. Notice if it loosens, even slightly. That small loosening is the practice working.

Source: Cognitive Defusion in ACT — Association for Contextual Behavioral Science ↗

It is okay to feel two opposite things at once. "I love them, and I want this to end." Both can be true. You don't have to resolve it.

Why it works. "I love them and I want this to end." "I am grateful and I am furious." In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, this is called willingness — the recognition that emotions don't cancel each other out, and you don't have to resolve the contradiction to keep going. ACT has more than a thousand randomized trials behind it and is recommended by the World Health Organization and the American Psychological Association.

Try it now (30 seconds)

Finish this sentence honestly, even if it sounds wrong out loud: "I love them, AND I…" Whatever comes next is allowed to be true. The point isn't to fix the contradiction. The point is to stop fighting yourself for having it.

Source: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy — Association for Contextual Behavioral Science ↗

It counts when the day was small. Caregivers who measure their day by one small thing they did on purpose burn out slower than those who measure by tasks finished.

Why it works. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and now used in over 700 medical centers worldwide) consistently finds that caregivers who measure their day by one small intentional act — one breath taken with awareness, one bite of food actually noticed, one moment of looking out the window — report less burnout than those who measure it by tasks completed. Smallness is a strategy, not a failure.

Try it now (1 minute)

Pick one ordinary thing happening right now — your hands holding the cup, the sound of the room, the light in the window. Give it your attention for sixty seconds. Don't try to relax. Don't try to feel different. Just notice. That's the whole practice. The benefit is cumulative — one minute today, another tomorrow.

Source: Mindfulness exercises — Mayo Clinic ↗

You have permission to not be the strong one every minute of the day. Beating yourself up doesn't make you stronger. It depletes you faster. The research is clear.

Why it works. Self-compassion research (Kristin Neff, PhD, University of Texas, two decades of clinical trials) consistently shows that caregivers who give themselves the same fair shake they would give a friend going through the same thing have lower burnout, less depression, and even better immune function than those who push through with self-criticism. The harsh inner voice doesn't make you stronger. It depletes you faster. Cutting yourself a little slack is a strategy, not a weakness.

Try it now (15 seconds)

Say it once, in your own words, out loud or to yourself: "This is hard, and I'm doing the best I can with it." That's the whole practice. Once is enough. If a friend was carrying what you're carrying, you'd say the same thing to them. You're allowed to say it to yourself.

Source: Self-Compassion for caregivers — Kristin Neff, PhD ↗

If one of these landed today, that is enough. Come back when another might fit. When you're ready for more, the Caregiver Wellness page goes deeper — respite, support networks, anticipatory grief, end-of-life support, and the longer ways through.

If several signs feel familiar

It doesn't mean you're failing.

It means the support around you is too thin for what you are being asked to do. The 2026 clinical consensus is clear: caregiver fatigue improves most with layered, multi-component support — personal health habits, structured external support, skills training, and real breaks. Self-reliance alone is not a treatment plan.

The single most useful clinical tool we can offer you is the 22-question Caregiver Burden Self-Check, based on the Zarit Burden Interview (the most widely-used and validated caregiver burden measure in clinical practice worldwide). It takes about three to five minutes, stays entirely in your browser, and gives you an honest number across physical, emotional, social, and financial strain. A rising score over weeks or months is one of the earliest reliable signals that your situation is becoming unsustainable — and one of the easiest to act on early.

Take the 22-question Burden Self-Check →

If you are caring for a veteran

The VA may pay you a monthly stipend.

The Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) provides a monthly stipend, free health insurance, mental health counseling, and at least 30 days of respite care per year — to family members caring for veterans with serious service-connected disabilities. Most families qualify for one of two VA caregiver programs.

You are not alone in this.

The hardest single step is usually the first phone call. Start with one.

Caregiver Fatigue & Self-Check 📍 Local Resources

Moab CareLink is an independent community-based platform. We do not match, vet, or provide care services. Nothing on this site is medical, legal, or financial advice.