FEBRUARY 2026

The Cost of Caregiving

When people learn that you’re a caregiver, they may think of the appointments you coordinate, the medications you help organize, the phone calls to healthcare providers, or the emotional support and comfort you provide. What they may not think of is the financial impact that often comes with the role.

Caregivers report experiencing greater financial hardship because of their caregiving responsibilities. According to data from OCO’s latest Spotlight Report, the average out-of-pocket cost per month for caregivers is now $758, up from $641 in 2024. This extra pressure, along with increasing economic uncertainty, has made finances one of the most stressful aspects of being a caregiver. In this issue of Connect, we’re sharing some ideas and resources that may help.

👉 Learn more about the financial aspects of caregiving in this video with Stephanie Muskat, a mental health clinician and caregiver for 16 years (3 minutes).

Building Financial Resilience and Exploring Supports

If you are feeling the financial impact of caregiving, you’re not alone. Knowing what resources are available is a good first step to making a financial plan. Get started by exploring financial supports on our website. You may also find these tips from our podcast on building financial resilience with Credit Canada useful:

Create a Caregiving Budget 

Set up a budget that shows exactly how much you can allocate to caregiving each month. This will help you understand what your limit is and where you may be able to cut back. It can help paint a clearer picture of your current circumstances and what changes might help. Try the A-B-C budgeting method to help you get started:

• Analyze: Write down all income and expenses to understand your cash flow.
• Brainstorm: List all possible ways to increase income or cut expenses.
• Change: Choose one or two realistic changes and implement them.

Open a Separate Caregiving Bank Account

Keeping your caregiving costs and personal expenses separate can help you stay organized, maintain boundaries, track spending more easily, and stick to your financial plan.

Track Your Caregiving Expenses Regularly

Now that you’ve built awareness around your financial situation, regular tracking can help you stay on top of your finances. Set up a monthly meeting with yourself, or your household, to review your expenses. This will allow you to spot trends early and adjust. Use this time to look for opportunities to reduce costs, where possible, through offerings from community programs, subsidies, or discounts the care recipient may qualify for (i.e. reduced phone plans).

Navigating Challenges of Care as a Black Caregiver

In many Black communities, providing care for family, friends, and neighbours in need is a part of who you are. It’s not just something you do. It’s often seen as a cultural expectation.

This Black History month, we recognize that along with the everyday challenges of caregiving, Black caregivers may also be struggling to access supports that fit with their experience while often navigating systemic racism and unconscious bias in the healthcare system.

This is what Sherron and Clovis Grant faced when their son, Isaiah, received an autism diagnosis. Hopes and dreams were replaced with fear and concern: What does this mean for his future? How will the world treat and perceive him as a Black boy with special needs?

At support groups, other parents shared helpful advice: how to advocate, speak to the principal, and navigate funding offices. But Sherron was often the only Black parent and didn’t feel comfortable talking about specific issues, like concerns that her son may be streamed into classes that wouldn’t challenge him to build his skills.

Everyday outings to the mall or the grocery store became moments where the intersection of race and disability created fear and hypervigilance. They were afraid that as a Black boy with special needs, Isaiah’s idiosyncrasies, like touching items in the store, could lead to shop clerks calling the police.

These experiences made them realize that there was a gap. So, they launched the non-profit organization Sawubona Africentric Circle of Support to support Black caregivers of individuals with special needs and their families.

Want to hear more from Sherron and Clovis? Listen to their story in this episode of Time to Talk.

If you’re a Black caregiver facing similar challenges, there are resources linked on our website, including our “I am a Caregiver Toolkit” which was adapted in partnership with TAIBU Community Health Centre.

Burnt Out Caregivers in Ontario Using Emergency Rooms to Find Respite

Almost 1 in 5 caregivers report taking the person they care for to the emergency department (ED) because they needed a break, according to data from our recent Spotlight Report.

This isn’t a choice caregivers make lightly. Going to the ED creates significant stress for the caregiver and the care recipient, but many say they’ve run out of options and face circumstances so challenging that taking a break is impossible.

Last year, almost 1.9 million visits to the ED were for caregivers desperately seeking respite.

Amy Coupal, OCO's CEO talked with CityNews about the reality of these choices, “Caregivers feel like they don’t have any other choice in the moment. Sometimes it’s from burnout, sometimes it’s from fatigue and sometimes it’s because of that convergence of challenges that they’re facing as a caregiver and they need help.”

Adrienne Jackson, a caregiver in our community, shared her own experience using the emergency room for respite, “People don’t understand how difficult and stressful it is to be a caregiver. Unless you’re in it, you don’t really know what it’s like and the burnout is real.”

So, what can we do to help caregivers?

Amy points to connecting caregivers with support, “What we know is that caregivers need support early and often, so the sooner we can get to caregivers, the more we can help them to design a plan that works for them.”

In addition to OCO’s free caregiver programs and services that include peer support, caregiver coaching, and the 24/7 Caregiver Helpline, OCO works with various care settings – primary care, home care, community care, hospitals, and long-term care to help ensure caregivers are identified, included, and supported early in their caregiving journey.

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