For many, rounding that last corner toward one’s apartment or home after a day of work brings a sigh of relief. Particularly in autumn, when sunlight hours are short, the contrast between a day of work and end-of-day respite heightens. One steps out of the evening’s darkness into the lighted welcome of home. Unless your home is your work. For family caregivers, the valence of work and home are reversed. Home is a place of work rather than rest.
Among these home-workers, many are family members who are responsible for the care of a loved one: a spouse with a disability, an aging parent, an adult child with special needs. One in 10 Americans provides care to a family member who is an adult. Their labor includes everything from emotional support to physical and medical support. They ar