The number of caregivers, people who take care of other adults or children with special medical needs, is growing. As our population ages, family members are increasingly called upon to care for ailing spouses or parents. Providing care for a person with dementia is particularly demanding and stressful, and caregivers for people with dementia seem to have poorer physical and mental health than other caregivers. These caregivers may feel isolated, and loneliness has been associated with increased mortality, as well as increased risk of physical and psychiatric problems. In the United Kingdom, there are befriending services that aim to provide one-to-one social support for caregivers. Unfortunately, in a recent study published in BMJ, the journal of the British Medical Association, these befriending services were not effective in improving the psychological well-being and quality of life for family caregivers of people with dementia.

The investigators from the United Kingdom recruited 236 family caregivers of people with dementia and offered 116 of these participants access to a social support intervention in the form of contact with a person who could facilitate befriending services. The average age of the participating caregivers was 68 years old. The role of the befriending service was to provide emotional support through companionship and conversation. The investigators evaluated well-being and quality of life of the caregivers at 6, 15, and 24 months after initiation of the study, and they found no evidence for a benefit of access to befriending. The investigators suggested that one reason for this finding was the higher than anticipated level of family support received by the caregivers, as well as a higher-than-expected level of contact with caregivers' support resources such as health and social services.

Although this study did not demonstrate a benefit in one-to-one social support through befriending services, it does highlight the importance of mobilizing family resources and offering caregiver support to the many adults who are caring for loved ones with chronic illnesses.