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If you’ve been diagnosed with a chronic condition, your healthcare provider may have laid out a care plan for you. If so, your plan likely outlines steps to minimize your symptoms and optimize your prognosis, such as taking your medications each day, attending regular check-in appointments, and undergoing any necessary treatments or procedures.

About the Author: Kasley Killam, MPH is the founder of Social Health Labs, where she partners with cross-sector organizations on local, state, and national initiatives to reduce loneliness and improve social well-being. She holds a master’s from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

About the Author: David I. Rappaport MD has been a Pediatric Hospitalist at Nemours/AI duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE since 2005. He is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Sidney Kimmel Medical College/Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He is known for his research in the care of children with medical complexity as they prepare and undergo surgical procedures.

I was a family caregiver and mother for over six years, raising two children while also caring for aging parents. My husband was the primary caregiver for his divorced mother during this same period. Together, we witnessed our parents endure stage 4 lung cancer, COPD, diabetes, mobility issues, and more. Our many competing roles sometimes meant we could barely keep our heads above water.