Caregiving Is a Men’s Health Issue
Caregiving is often treated as a woman’s responsibility, but a growing number of men in Georgia are caring for parents, partners, children, and loved ones every day. This Men’s Health Month, Georgians for a Healthy Future is spotlighting male caregivers from GHF’s Caregivers Advisory Group whose stories reframe caregiving as a matter of commitment, not gender, and reveal why supporting caregivers is essential to men’s health.
There are 2.5 million family caregivers in Georgia, representing 30 percent of all adults. By 2050, more than 1 in 4 metro Atlanta residents will be over 60, and 70 percent of older adults will need long-term care at some point. That care will come from families, and increasingly, from men. The more men step into caregiving roles, the clearer it becomes: caregiving is a men’s health issue.
Why Men’s Caregiving Goes Unseen
For many men, stepping into a caregiving role means navigating more than the demands of care itself. Men who step into caregiving roles often do so amidst a backdrop of pressure to appear self-sufficient, capable, and unshaken. There is stigma around discussing stress, exhaustion, or fear, and a persistent assumption that men “help out” while women do the real caregiving, even when men are the primary or sole caregiver in a household.
When a caregiver cannot name what he is carrying, the weight does not disappear. It manifests as:
- Isolation and depression
- Disrupted sleep
- Delayed preventive care
- Burnout that affects the quality of care for the person who depends on him
Often, men are expected to carry enormous emotional responsibility without permission to talk about the emotional, physical, and psychological toll it costs them.
Meet Some of Georgia’s Male Caregivers
Armstrong S. and Joey J. are members of GHF’s Caregivers Advisory Group who were first featured in our November 2025 post, Love in motion: Honoring Georgia’s family caregivers. This Men’s Health Month, they shared more about how caregiving has shaped their understanding of strength, health, and what it means to be a man.
Armstrong S.
GHF Caregivers Advisory Group Member
“True strength isn’t about hiding emotions; it’s found in extreme patience, vulnerability, and the gentleness required for intimate personal care.”
Joey J.
“Caregiving isn’t just women’s work, and one of the greatest strengths of a man is showing care.”
Armstrong has been caring for his mother since she experienced a severe stroke three years ago. What began as an overnight role reversal has become a profound lesson in what strength actually looks like.
“We’re often taught that male strength is about being a rigid, physical protector. Caregiving turned that on its head. True strength isn’t about hiding emotions; it’s found in extreme patience, vulnerability, and the gentleness required for intimate personal care. It has taught me that being a man is just as much about nurturing as it is about providing.”
Armstrong is candid about the full weight of what he carries. “Physically, assisting someone with limited mobility is exhausting. Mentally and emotionally, watching a parent grieve their independence brings heavy chronic stress. Financially, it’s a massive balancing act with work and medical costs.”
Even rest comes with a cost. Taking an hour for himself, he says, “often comes with a wave of caregiver guilt.” He leans on a small circle of trusted friends and family to get through the hard stretches.
Through GHF’s Caregivers Advisory Group, he found what he calls his “tribe.” His message for policymakers is direct: “Family caregivers are the invisible backbone of the health care system. We save the state millions, but at great personal and financial cost. We urgently need expanded respite care so we can take breaks, financial relief for family providers, and easier access to state-funded resources.”
Joey has spent five years as the sole caregiver for his father, who is living with a stroke. As the only family member in the same state, he said, stepping into the role was simply his responsibility.
For Joey, caregiving was never part of the plan for what a man was supposed to do. “Growing up, I felt caregiving was for women, and a man’s job was only to provide because men can’t show care. But being a caregiver has taught me resilience, strength, and great responsibility.”
Joey is candid about the toll. “It can be draining physically, mentally, and emotionally as a caregiver. It takes a lot of time, resilience, finance, and strength to be a caregiver, and sometimes it gets frustrating.”
When the weight becomes too heavy, he turns to his siblings for relief. His message to other men is clear: “Caregiving isn’t just women’s work, and one of the greatest strengths of a man is showing care.” And to Georgia’s policymakers, he says, “The state needs to support caregivers with paid family leave and caregiver respite vouchers.”
Armstrong and Joey’s experiences are not outliers. The data tells the same story.
By the Numbers
- 64% of family caregivers report high emotional stress
- 73% are caring for someone with two or more health conditions
- 30% have been caregiving for five or more years
Source: AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving, Caregiving in the U.S. 2025
Men’s Health Month conversations often center on screenings, prostate health, and doctor visits. Those do matter, but men’s health also includes chronic stress, mental health, sleep, social connection, and financial stability. For male caregivers, all of those dimensions are under pressure at once.
One pressure point that gets too little attention is isolation. According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s 2023 advisory on loneliness and isolation, social isolation is as damaging to health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day, raising the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and cognitive decline. Caregiving already tends to shrink a person’s social world. For men, who are less likely to have support systems in place when isolation sets in, that risk is compounded.
Supporting caregivers is preventive health care. When we invest in caregivers, we are not just helping the people they care for. We are protecting the caregivers’ own health, too.
What Caregivers Need and Where to Find Help
Both Armstrong and Joey named the same gaps. Caregivers need:
- Respite care, so they can take a real break
- Mental health services that are accessible and affordable
- Paid family leave and workplace flexibility
- Financial relief for the costs of providing care
- A strong Medicaid Home and Community Based Services program
Georgia already has infrastructure to build on. The Atlanta Regional Commission’s Aging and Independence Services group funds caregiver supports across the 11-county metro Atlanta region. Empowerline connects caregivers and older adults to services at empowerline.org or 404-463-3333. These programs matter, and they need sustained investment to meet the scale of what is coming.
The Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Aging Services oversees a wide range of caregiver supports statewide, including information and assistance, adult day and adult day health care, respite care, nutrition and legal assistance, and counseling and caregiver education. All of Georgia’s Area Agencies on Aging provide caregiver services, and caregivers can find their local agency and available programs through the state. Georgia’s Aging and Disability Resource Connection (1-866-552-4464) offers statewide access to information specialists who help connect families to caregiver programs and supports. For a practical, Georgia-specific overview of programs, eligibility, and next steps, see Caring Across Generations’ Georgia Care Kit (2024). For more Georgia-specific caregiver resources, read GHF’s earlier post on caregiving as a workforce issue.
No One Should Do This Alone
Caregiving requires patience, presence, vulnerability, endurance, and love. These are not soft traits or “feminine” traits. They are human traits. Armstrong has learned that being a man is just as much about nurturing as it is about providing. Joey came into caregiving without a roadmap, and five years later, he is still finding his way through with resilience and heart. They are two of the many Georgians carrying this weight every day, most of them doing it without recognition or support. This Men’s Health Month, let’s make sure the men doing this quiet, daily work know they are seen, valued, and not alone.
GHF’s Caregivers Advisory Group brings together caregivers like Armstrong and Joey to turn lived experience into policy change. Male caregivers deserve to be seen, supported, and heard, and that work is happening here.
Sources
- AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving. Caregiving in the U.S. 2025. Washington, DC: AARP. July 24, 2025.
- Atlanta Regional Commission. Aging Well in Metro Atlanta. Presented by Becky A. Kurtz, Senior Managing Director, Aging and Independence Services. February 27, 2026.
- U.S. Surgeon General. Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation. 2023.
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