The Weight They Carry: Florida’s Family Caregivers in 2026
To the daughter answering the phone at 11pm. To the husband who hasn’t slept through the night in a year.
We see you.
You are not a statistic to us. But the statistics are worth knowing, because they say out loud what you’ve been carrying quietly: you are not alone, you are not failing, and the math was never going to work without help.
The new Solay 2026 Florida Family Caregiver Report — The Weight They Carry — pulls from the AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving’s October 2025 Florida state study. It’s the clearest picture we have of who is caring for Florida’s aging parents in 2026, and what that role is costing the people doing it.
Download the full report (PDF)
Four million caregivers. One in four Floridians. Most carrying it alone.
4,451,000 adults in Florida — nearly one in four — are caring for a family member or friend with a complex medical condition or disability. Half of them are caring for a parent.
The average Florida caregiver is 51 years old, caring for someone who is 69. 59% also hold down a paying job. 48% live under the same roof as the person they care for. 26% are sandwich-generation — caring for a parent and a child at the same time.
And then there’s the number that should stop everyone reading this:
87% have never used respite care.
Not once. Even though 41% say a break would help. The relief exists. The connection to it doesn’t.
This is the gap we built Solay to close.
The work is heavier than most families admit
Every family caregiver in Florida helps with at least one task of daily life — groceries, housework, transportation, finances. Most also take on the intimate, hands-on work that hospitals get paid to do.
82% help with grocery shopping. 81% with housework. 75% with transportation.
62% are giving medicines. 60% perform medical and nursing tasks they were never trained for.
47% help a loved one in and out of bed. 34% help with bathing. 25% manage incontinence care.
34% spend at least 40 hours a week providing care — a full-time job’s worth, on top of the job they already have. Only 13% were ever trained for the medical tasks they do. 27% find the hands-on work difficult.
If you’re reading this and thinking that’s just what family does — you’re right. And also: you’re allowed to need a hand.
What the role costs the person doing it
The weight shows up in the body, in the bank account, and most of all on the calendar.
41% rate the role a 4 or 5 out of 5 for emotional stress.
31% say they can’t take care of their own health while focused on someone else’s.
24% feel isolated in the work. One in five report seven or more poor-health days a month.
54% have taken a financial hit — stopped saving, drained short-term savings, taken on debt, or fallen behind on bills.
34% have been doing this for three years or more.
And yet 56% still say caregiving gives them a sense of purpose and meaning. That matters. The goal was never to take the role away. The goal is to make sure no one has to carry all of it alone.
Where Solay fits — and what the subscription actually does
Family caregivers don’t need to be replaced. They need a trained second set of hands who shows up when they call, the same way, every week. That’s what a Solay subscription is.
A trained Companion shares the load
The hands-on hours — the bath, the meals, the morning routine, the doctor’s appointment — no longer have to fall on one untrained family member. Your Companion is matched on purpose using our 24-question Match Protocol, and it’s the same person every visit. Familiarity is the whole point.
One Family Guide who actually answers
One named coordinator who knows your parent, knows your situation, and responds within four hours. No phone tree. No new intake every time something changes.
Respite that actually gets used
The break 87% of caregivers never take, made simple. Hours scale up or down with the week — a few mornings, full days, the Tuesday you have to be at your own doctor. The schedule moves with your life, not the other way around.
A subscription, because care isn’t a one-time event
A monthly Solay plan means the help is already there when the next hard week arrives. No re-shopping for an agency. No starting over with a new face. The Companion knows your mom’s coffee. The Family Guide knows your name.
If you’re the one holding it together
You don’t have to keep doing this the way you’ve been doing it.
If you live in Pinellas County and you’re caring for a parent — tell us what’s happening. We’ll tell you what’s possible. We respond within four hours, or your first week is free.
Read the full report: The Weight They Carry — Solay 2026 Florida Family Caregiver Report (PDF)
Talk to a Family Guide: contact@mysolay.com · (727) 304-5757 · St. Petersburg, FL
Source: AARP & the National Alliance for Caregiving, Caregiving in the US 2025: Florida (October 2025). All Florida figures cited above are drawn from this state report. Sample of 164 Florida caregivers via Ipsos KnowledgePanel®; margin of sampling error ±8.6%.