The silent struggle : Balancing work and caregiving responsibilities

Most of us in the corporate world pride ourselves on balancing deadlines, teams, and personal goals. But there’s a quiet responsibility many working professionals never talk about: caring for a loved one with a clinical mental illness.

In India, this is not a niche issue. Data from the National Mental Health Survey shows that 150+ million Indians need active mental health care. Yet with a massive treatment gap—over 60–70% depending on the disorder—families become the de-facto care system.

And for many urban professionals, that means taking calls between meetings, managing crises during travel weeks, or holding emotionally intense conversations late at night.

Research is clear: caregivers of severe mental illnesses experience significant emotional burden, impaired productivity, higher burnout rates, and elevated anxiety/depression levels. The WHO estimates that caregivers lose 20–30% of their productive capacity due to hidden labour—coordination with psychiatrists, monitoring medication, managing unpredictable episodes, navigating stigma, and simply absorbing the emotional weight.

Yet, workplace culture still frames mental health as an “individual wellness” concern—meditation, mindfulness, journaling.

These matter, but they don’t touch the lived reality of someone supporting a family member through schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression, or OCD. Their challenges are operational, emotional, financial, and logistical.

A working professional caregiver’s real questions look like:

• How do I maintain productivity when nights turn into crisis-management?

• Who teaches me symptom patterns, relapse signs, or communication strategies?

• How do I coordinate between multiple therapists, psychiatrists, and medications while working full-time?

• Where do I go when I start to burn out?

This is where caregiver-centric solutions are urgently needed. Supporting caregivers isn’t just empathy—it’s a systems approach to improving patient outcomes and reducing workforce burnout.

At CareCircle, we’re building tools and structured guidance to help caregivers navigate the hardest parts of the journey—so they can support their loved ones without losing themselves in the process.