No one can provide long-term care for someone with dementia alone, without any help or support. Support groups can be helpful for finding encouragement, information and inspiration. In theory, you might know you are not alone, but meeting real people in similar situations to your own can be helpful. You will experience that your problems are not as different from others as you might believe.
Support groups are made out of the people involved in them, including a moderator, usually a health professional or a community member. The structure of support groups is different, where some are more formal and others more informal. All support groups give opportunities to talk about your caring situation and exchange experiences. You choose how much you want to share, and differing opinions are welcomed. Discussions on how to manage different situations can prevent group members from “reinventing the wheel”, providing suggestions on effective, tested methods.
In support groups, you will meet people who also care for someone with a cognitive impairment and know the struggles you are facing. Even if a support group starts out as a group of strangers, important friendships and a feeling of familial bonds often occur. Positive reinforcement of the expression of struggles, guilt and isolation, which in many cases contribute to burden among caregivers, is essential to be able to restructure a difficult life situation. Some even find hope in seeing others managing what seems to be hopeless situations.
