SUPPORT GROUPS FOR INFORMAL CAREGIVERS DONT WORK - REFOCUS THE GROUPSOR THE EVALUATIONS

This paper is a critical review of studies that evaluate support group s for informal caregivers, a form of intervention that is becoming inc reasingly prevalent in public and community organizations. After situa ting the context for support groups, the paper briefly describes types of support groups evaluated, types of evaluative research, principal results, and limitations of the evaluations. The studies reviewed focu s mainly on short-term support groups that offer information and emoti onal support and help develop new skills. The evaluations mainly seek to assess the impact of groups on the consequences of stress by using experimental designs and standardized measures; they pay little attent ion to evaluating implementation. The majority of studies conclude tha t support groups have little impact. Three major avenues for future re search are proposed: analysis of different types of support groups, mu ltiplicity of theoretical and disciplinary approaches focusing more at tention on group dynamics and social issues, and use of a greater rang e of research methods.