Georgia caregivers face financial strain as families navigate complex health needs

Half of the more than 130 million Americans who provide care to a loved one experience financial strain due to the care they provide.

One mother in southwest Georgia has experienced this reality.

Cassenda Nelson’s daughter was diagnosed with diabetes during the coronavirus pandemic. She also has epileptic seizures and takes mental health medication. 

Nelson’s routine consists of a regiment of medications, doctor’s appointments, work and constantly managing her child’s care. Nelson works as a community health worker, a breast cancer educator, and a doula.

Nelson wants the newly elected leaders from the midterm elections to understand what families like hers go through by listening to their needs. 

“The unknowing in the beginning put me in a state of depression for myself, so I was not able to proactively get to work and do the things that I needed to do, along with navigating her care and dealing with my own personal mental health,” Nelson said.

Nelson is the chair of the Georgia Community Health Worker Board for Southwest Georgia and  lives in Camilla, Georgia. She has to travel to Columbus, Macon, and even Jacksonville and Tallahassee to care for her daughter without additional financial support. Nelson increased her flexible spending account by $1,200 per year to cover her daughter’s medications. 

Nelson said candidates have spoken about paid leave and insurance issues, but she feels they haven’t addressed the barriers she faces every day.

“I have to go outside of my own community to get the proper care that she needs. It is really, really hard, the traveling, the trying to find the right doctors, the specialists, the people that I needed. It was really, really hard to navigate through that,” Nelson explained.

A 2026 state report card by The Century Foundation gave 29 states, including Georgia, a failing grade, or a D or lower. Georgia received a D minus. The report noted that Georgia was one of a few Southern states to expand paid leave for state employees, which Nelson used until she ran out of hours.