A long-term support group for people with dementia

This article reports the evaluation of a 24-week support group for people with recently diagnosed dementia.  The group was evaluated in four ways: transcript analysis of group sessions, interviews with participants and carers about the group at 8 and 20 weeks from the start of the group, rating of the importance of eight therapeutic factors by participants, carers and group leaders, mood scales completed by participants and their carers before the group and at 8 and 20 weeks after it started.  The evaluation suggests that as the group progressed, participants became more positive about using strategies for coping, group cohesion increased, they started to help each other solve problems, and they talked more about their social relationships and concern about the effect of their illness on their families.