Facebook App Offers Opportunity to Help Unpaid Alzheimer's Caregivers via Friendsourcing

A study published in the Journal of Technology in Human Services has demonstrated that a Facebook app developed by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis researchers could be used to provide support to unpaid caregivers of people with Alzheimer's, reports EurekAlert . The team developed the app as part of a peer support group intervention in which emotional and informational issues that cropped up in the support group were pushed to the caregiver's Facebook friends as questions. The Facebook friends then had the opportunity to recruit as a member of a support network by answering the questions. The researchers say when those questions were answered, the caregivers experienced a feeling of increased support. "Given the recent problems of social media, our study provides evidence of the social good that can be obtained with social media using telehealth innovations like friendsourcing, which we developed for supporting Alzheimer's caregiving," says IU Professor David Wilkerson.