The help you should already have — handed to you.
Nobody gives caregivers the map. So here it is — the real, free, official resources, with nothing to sign and nothing sold. Keep this page. Send it to someone who's drowning.
One honest word first: every resource below either tells you your options or points you toward help. Not one of them shows up at the house. That last part — a real person, on a Tuesday — is the one thing we're building. It's the last door on this page.
Wondering if you can be paid for the care you give? See the honest pathways →Home or a facility? Compare the honest cost, and the funding most families miss → When it’s too much: caregiver support that ends with a neighbor, not a list → In the hospital right now? Your rights when they say she’s leaving too soon → Dementia in the picture? Free Medicare care most families never hear about →
Caring for someone and not sure where to start? Six questions give you a plan and a one-page summary for the family doctor, on a related site: clinicalswipe.com/caregivers
Start here — the national essentials
Free, official, and good in all fifty states. If you only keep four, keep these.
Medicare & You — the official handbook
The government's own guide to what Medicare covers, the rules, and the caregiver protections. The online version is always the most current — read it there before you trust a mailed copy or a sales call.
Read it at medicare.gov Questions on a specific claim? 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).SHIP — free, unbiased Medicare help
A real human who explains Medicare with nothing to sell you — no plans, no commission, no pitch. When the letters stop making sense, this is who untangles them, for free. Find your state's office by ZIP.
Find your local SHIPThe Eldercare Locator — your county's front desk
Type in a ZIP and it hands you the local offices for rides, meals, in-home help, legal aid, and respite — anywhere in the country. The fastest way to find the human services near you.
Search by location Or call the national line: 1-800-677-1116 (Mon–Fri).The NIA Caregiver's Handbook
The National Institute on Aging's plain-language guide to the actual work — the day-to-day of caregiving, where to find support, and the part everyone skips: taking care of yourself. Free to read or order in print.
Get the handbookDaughterhood Circles — people who get it
Not a government office, but worth keeping: free, drop-in video circles led by trained leaders who were caregivers themselves. There are circles for long-distance caregivers, only children, sibling tension, guilt, grief, and early-stage dementia. Come to one when you need to talk to someone who has been there.
See this week's circlesIn Boulder County
We're Boulder-rooted, so here's the local map the national lists can't give you. Not in Boulder? The Eldercare Locator above finds these same offices in your own county.
Boulder County Area Agency on Aging
The county's hub for older adults and their families — a Resource Navigator who knows what's available locally and walks you to it, plus caregiver support, respite, and benefits counseling.
See what's offered Resource Navigator: 303-441-1617.The Long-Term Care Ombudsman
If a parent in assisted living or a nursing home isn't getting the care you're paying for, this is a free, independent advocate who is on the resident's side — not the facility's. They investigate concerns and push, confidentially.
Reach the ombudsman Boulder County: 303-441-1173.File a facility complaint (CDPHE)
When something at a licensed facility crosses from frustrating to wrong — a change in condition no one assessed, care that didn't match the plan — Colorado's health department investigates, and a citation lands on the facility's public record.
Start a complaint Assisted living line: 303-691-4045.Alzheimer's Association — Colorado
Local memory-loss support groups, care consultations, and education — plus a helpline that answers day or night when dementia turns the ordinary into a crisis. You do not have to figure this one out alone.
Colorado chapter 24/7 helpline: 1-800-272-3900.If tonight is hard
Some nights aren't a resource problem. Here's who answers right now, free, any hour.
You're at the end of your rope
Caregiving can take you to dark places. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is a real person, 24/7 — for you, not just the person you're caring for.
Call or text 988A dementia night is spiraling
Sundowning, wandering, a fall, a fear you can't calm. The Alzheimer's Association helpline is staffed around the clock, every day of the year.
1-800-272-3900Someone isn't safe
If an older adult is being neglected, exploited, or harmed, the Eldercare Locator routes you straight to your local Adult Protective Services. If it's an emergency, call 911.
Find local protectionWhen you need a person, not a phone tree
Read back over this page. Every line of it hands you information, or hands you off to someone else. That's real, and it's worth keeping. But there's a gap none of it fills: the actual hours. The ride to dialysis. The one who notices the legs are swelling before it's an ER trip. The company on a long Tuesday.
That's the one thing co-op.care is building — care delivered by neighbors who own the work, so they stay. We're early, and honest about it. But if what you actually need is a person in the house, start here — about five minutes, no account, no card.
Want the whole idea, start to finish? Read the book — it reads itself aloud, and there is nothing to buy.