June 2, 2025
Mental Health Needs More Attention in Senior Living
Mental health matters every month of the year.
In this Senior Living Minute, Carrie Aalberts shares her powerful perspective on why senior living professionals and caregivers need more than awareness; they need support. From grief to burnout, mental health in this industry is often overlooked. Carrie calls for systemic change, stigma reduction, and year-round support for all caregivers, professional and family alike.
Transcript: Mental Health Needs More Attention in Senior Living
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and I just wanted to say that all year long, we should always be talking about mental health.
Not only do you know professional caregivers, of course, they’re dealing with a ton of things mentally, and they need the support, but also our professional caregivers who are doing the hardest job as well.
And I feel, at least in my experience, I was never given mental health support. I was never given a support group opportunity after watching someone you cared for for a year pass away.
We don’t pay enough attention to mental health in our industry and how it’s affecting all of us as the professionals, because this is a really heavy industry. These are people’s lives.
And so we have to take care of our mental health. We have to make sure that our staff have the support that they need and that they feel comfortable speaking up when they need help, and same for family caregivers.
And we need to really, you know, push against the stigma. Thankfully, that is changing as we, you know, see it more and more. But we have a long way to go in making it accessible and making it seen and necessary for people.