Caregivers Can Now Call 211 for Help in 10 New States

AARP, United Way initiative expands to link more caregivers with support and resources

Mythili Sampathkumar,

AARP

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En español

Published July 10, 2025

a caregiver and older adult in a wheelchair

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Caregivers often feel overwhelmed. Balancing work, child care, their own health issues and caregiving for a loved one can leave them floundering in a sea of responsibilities.

But a program to help caregivers and others find state and local resources to support them is expanding. By calling 211, caregivers can connect to specialists who can help them find resources for food, clothing, medical care and transportation assistance in their community.

Over 200 call centers around the country answer calls to 211 and field requests for social support. AARP and United Way partner to manage the Caregiver Support Program in about 80 of those centers in 25 states and a U.S. territory.

Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York are the latest states, along with the unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico, to get centers with AARP-trained support specialists answering calls.

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About 48 million caregivers in the U.S. provide $600 billion in unpaid labor, according to a 2023 report from the AARP Public Policy Institute. They also spend, on average, $7,200 to $10,000 annually on out-of-pocket caregiving costs, depending on the number of work-related strains they have, according to a 2021 AARP study. As the 211 initiative expands, more caregivers can now access help that may ease those burdens.

“Caring for parents, spouses and other adult loved ones is a labor of love — but it can also be a tremendous challenge,” said Nancy LeaMond, AARP executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer. “Through this expansion of 211, we’re making it easier for family caregivers to find the help they need, when and where they need it.”

The 211 initiative addresses one of the biggest challenges of caregiving: navigating the system. Whether that is managing the costs of caregiving, balancing responsibilities that include work, managing mental health challenges or trying to figure out health insurance, including Medicare or Medicaid, caregivers often need outside support in the form of physical or financial help.

The service is free, confidential, runs 24/7 and is available in 180 languages. In 2024, 211 call centers nationwide logged responses to nearly 17 million requests for help, said Josh Dickson, interim chief strategy and innovation officer at United Way Worldwide. The organization estimated that more than 18 million local referrals were made in 2024.

Filling in the caregiving gaps

The new 211 center locations were chosen with the support of AARP’s state offices based on the number of caregivers in an area, said Bob Stephen, AARP vice president of health security programming.

Calls to 211 are rerouted by local telephone companies to referral specialists at call centers to assess caregiving needs and connect people with food and clothing banks, transportation options, delivery services, shelters, programs to assist with rent and utility bills, mental health services, community health clinics, veterans’ benefits and work support programs — all within their communities.

Referral specialists continually update resource listings as well and can assess personalized needs. “This program is successfully connecting more caregivers to the local aging network” in ways that an Internet search may not, Stephen said.

There are some limitations: 211 specialists may have trouble finding support for caregivers in communities where resources are scarce or have high barriers to access, like cost or transportation issues. “This challenge is ever present,” Stephen said.

However, specialists also make use of AARP’s extensive library of educational resources to help fill these gaps.

AARP also advocates for legislation supporting caregivers, provides caregiving guides and connects caregivers to one another in an online community to ask questions and get advice.

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Mythili Sampathkumar is a writer for AARP covering federal and state policy. She has worked for the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and The Independent and her reporting has been published in several outlets including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NBC News, Fortune, Forbes and Vox.