Tackling Caregiver Burnout with Dovetail Founder Dr. Ashley Blackington

Caregiver burnout starts building when the care a hospital team shares falls to one family member at home. In this episode, Dr. Ashley Blackington, an occupational therapist and the founder of Dovetail, describes what happens after discharge, how that can lead to caregiver burnout and how she is building Dovetail to make it easy for people who need help and caregivers to ask for help and spread the caregiving workload. We talk about: How Dovetail allows the primary caregiver to build a flock of helpers around the person receiving care, How layers of access give helpers exactly the information they need, not more. Why Dovetail includes AI summaries that give caregivers a clinical voice in doctor appointments. The conversation also covers why people avoid asking for help, the case for prevention, the caregiver foundation, and her advice on starting the funding conversation two steps earlier. If you’re a founder or investor who wants to see how a clinician turned a pattern she watched for years into a product, from permission design to AI quality checks to distribution, this episode is for you. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:05 Dr. Ashley Blackington’s path into occupational therapy 04:21 What occupational therapists actually do 07:52 Canadian and U.S. healthcare perspectives 09:29 Why family caregiving is reaching a breaking point 15:33 Moving from crisis care to sustainable support 18:11 The growing care gap and caregiver shortage 22:03 What happens when someone comes home from the hospital 25:11 Caregiver burnout and the “single point person” problem 30:19 How Dovetail helps families coordinate care 41:17 AI summaries for caregivers and clinicians 48:40 How Dovetail is available today and where it’s headed 52:03 Prevention, parenting, and the future of caregiving 55:58 Why occupational therapy should be more proactive 58:46 The caregiver foundation and making support accessible 1:02:35 Home Field Advantage and the And Both podcast 1:06:30 Getting more men involved in caregiving 1:08:58 Dr. Blackington’s advice for building prevention and community 1:11:41 Where to learn more about Dr. Ashley Blackington and Dovetail Show notes Blog: https://womendisruptingtech.blog/2026/10/22/episode-173/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/p/episode-173 Connect with Dr. Ashley Blackington and Dovetail Website: https://ashleyblackington.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyblackington/ Substack: https://ashleyblackington.substack.com/ Website Dovetail: https://dovetail.care/ Dovetail LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dovetailapp/ Dovetail Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dovetail.care Connect with Dirkjan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/ Substack: https://womendisruptingtech.substack.com/ FundingCoach: https://fundingcoach.ai/ About Women Disrupting Tech Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow to get it in your feed. 🎧 Listen to Women Disrupting Tech on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. 👉 Subscribe for more conversations with women building the future of health tech.