We are here to help you! Call us +855 405 2733
We are here to help you! Call us +855 405 2733
Caregivers are the most reliably overlooked people in this field. If you are supporting a veteran with PTSD, a spouse with an addiction, or an adult child with serious mental illness, you are doing skilled, exhausting, unpaid work that nobody trained you for and most people cannot see.
Caregivers have measurably elevated rates of depression, anxiety, insomnia and stress-related illness. You are allowed to be a patient in your own right, and looking after yourself is not a distraction from the caregiving — it is what makes the caregiving sustainable.
Axis Mental Health provides outpatient substance use and mental health treatment from Desert Hot Springs, California, serving the Coachella Valley, Riverside County and the wider Southern California region. Our care includes individual and group therapy, psychiatric medication management, dual-diagnosis treatment for co-occurring mental health conditions, and telehealth appointments anywhere in California.
We are an outpatient provider. We do not operate a medical detox or residential unit. If your assessment shows you need that level of care first, we will help you find a licensed program and pick your treatment up again the moment you step down.
Call (855) 405-2733 for a free, confidential consultation, or send us a message.
It is different from caregiving for a purely physical condition, and harder in specific ways:
If you care for a veteran, VA has two distinct programs and the difference matters:
Open to caregivers of veterans enrolled in VA health care, with no requirement for a service-connected disability. Provides education and skills training, peer support mentoring, coaching, self-care courses, and access to a caregiver support coordinator at your VA facility. No stipend. Broad eligibility and easy to access — a reasonable place to start.
The more intensive program. Requires that the veteran have a serious service-connected injury or illness and need personal care services. Benefits can include a monthly stipend paid to the caregiver, CHAMPVA health coverage if the caregiver is not otherwise insured, mental health services, respite care, travel reimbursement for the veteran’s appointments, and caregiver training.
Importantly, the MISSION Act extended PCAFC to caregivers of veterans of all service eras, not only post-9/11. Eligibility criteria have been revised more than once, so if you were denied under earlier rules it may be worth reapplying.
Caregiver Support Line: 1-855-260-3274, staffed by licensed professionals. Every VA medical center also has a Caregiver Support Coordinator, and asking for them by name is the fastest route in.
A boundary is about what you will do, not what they must do — which is why it is enforceable.
State them calmly, once, and hold them. Inconsistently enforced limits are worse than none, because they teach that limits are negotiable. Notice too that all of these keep the relationship intact — that is deliberate.
Children living with a family member’s addiction or serious mental illness need age-appropriate honesty: that the person is unwell with something that affects the brain, that it is not the child’s fault, that it is not their job to fix it, and that they are safe and loved. Silence does not protect children — they already know something is wrong, and in the absence of an explanation they supply one, usually involving themselves.
You did not cause it, you cannot control it, and you cannot cure it. What you can do — stay connected, be clear, be ready when they are — is substantial, and it is not the same as being responsible for the outcome.
You are allowed to have needs while they are still unwell. Not after they recover. Not once things settle down. Now. Axis Mental Health treats family members and caregivers as patients in their own right, whether or not your family member ever becomes one. Call (855) 405-2733, including by telehealth if getting out of the house is the problem.
Possibly. The VA Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers provides a monthly stipend to approved primary family caregivers of veterans with serious service-connected conditions who need personal care services. Start with the Caregiver Support Line at 1-855-260-3274 or your VA facility’s Caregiver Support Coordinator. California IHSS may also pay family caregivers in some Medi-Cal situations.
Often yes. PCAFC eligibility criteria have been revised several times, and the MISSION Act extended the program to caregivers of veterans from all service eras rather than only post-9/11. A denial under old rules does not settle it.
No, and the framing itself is part of the problem. Caregiver burnout leads to worse care, worse decisions, and sometimes to the relationship collapsing entirely. Sustaining yourself is the strategy, not a departure from it.
Keep the relationship intact, keep naloxone available, keep reinforcing the well version of them, keep your boundaries steady, and get your own support now. Most people are not ready the first time or the fifth. CRAFT-informed approaches are specifically designed for this situation and have the best evidence for eventually getting a resistant person into treatment.
Yes, and you should. You do not need their participation, permission or diagnosis. Call (855) 405-2733 and be the patient.
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If this is an emergency, call 911. If you are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For free, confidential treatment referrals 24 hours a day, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
This page is general health education, not medical advice, a diagnosis, or a treatment plan. Never stop or change a prescribed medication without speaking to a clinician first. Withdrawal from alcohol, benzodiazepines and barbiturates can cause seizures and can be fatal without medical supervision.