Healthcare News

Online communities offer support for carers
28/03/2008
Web communities such as the Dementia Cafe can give carers support.

New online communities can help carers cope with the pressures of looking after an elderly relative with Alzheimer's.

According to an article on Communitycare.co.uk, the benefits of online communities include the fact that they are available round-the-clock to provide full-time support.

In particular it cited the Dementia Cafe website, which is run by Liverpool-based charity Personal Service Security (PSS), as a good place to find commiseration and stress relief.

"There are a lot of people throughout society who are affected by dementia, and they and their carers become extremely isolated, often because they either don't meet the [local authority] criteria for getting any practical support, or there's the stigma of asking for help," Pam Stopforth, the PSS dementia development co-ordinator, told the website.

A regular visitor to the site, Pat Devin, whose husband suffers from Alzheimer's, added that it was an ideal place to turn for moral support.

This follows news that the magnitude of caring for a parent with Alzheimer's means that many care givers have to enlist the help of their own offspring.

A study conducted by the Alzheimer's Foundation in the US revealed that three in five caregivers give children aged under 21 tasks related to the care of their elderly grandparents.

Please click here for advice about finding the right type of care.