Befriending carers of people with dementia: randomised controlled trial.

Abstract

To evaluate the effectiveness of a voluntary sector based befriending scheme in improving psychological wellbeing and quality of life for family carers of people with dementia. Single blind randomised controlled trial. Community settings in East Anglia and London. 236 family carers of people with primary progressive dementia. Contact with a befriender facilitator and offer of match with a trained lay volunteer befriender compared with no befriender facilitator contact; all participants continued to receive "usual care." Carers' mood (hospital anxiety and depression scale-depression) and health related quality of life (EuroQoL) at 15 months post-randomisation. The intention to treat analysis showed no benefit for the intervention "access to a befriender facilitator" on the primary outcome measure or on any of the secondary outcome measures. In common with many carers' services, befriending schemes are not taken up by all carers, and providing access to a befriending scheme is not effective in improving wellbeing. Trial registration Current CONTROLLED TRIALS: ISRCTN08130075.