[Evaluation of guided conversation groups for family caregivers of dementia. Results of the GENA project in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern].

The GeNA project (Gerontopsychiatric network of work with family caregivers Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) has focused basically on the support of family caregivers of demented old people in guided conversation groups along with setting up a supporting network for this target group within the framework of the Federal Ministry for Senior Citizens, Family and Youth model program "Future Structures of Old People's Welfare".The integrative counselling approach developed for the preservation and restoration of the family balance and for the reduction of care burden was investigated with regard to its effectiveness in case of meaningful indicators in a pre-post-design at ten locations. For the entire sample, the expected burden reductions were found only occasionally and with just a slight downward trend in the fields "physical exhaustion", "health trouble", "deficiency in the realm of social relations" and "utilization of professional support". There are only a few changes according to the measured personality traits out of the construct realm of filial maturity.A differentiating analysis of the caregivers' assessments defines two types of family caregivers (filial more mature vs. filial more immature caregivers) from the inquiry data of the beginning of group participation which differ from each other most significantly concerning the changes of interest during the progress of intervention:Whereas the emotional more independent family caregivers seem to profit less by the participation of this type of a guided conversation group, the caregivers, who show problematic filial patterns of ties with the care recipients to a higher degree, are able to use the participation for a distinct decrease of care burden. This contrary effect of group participation of the two types of personalities of caregivers can possibly be seen as a diagnostic indication for the selection of potential participants of similar group support offers. In view of the small sample size these results should be used with caution and first of all to generate more profound hypotheses for the specific fit of offer and demand of different kinds of group support for the relatives of demented old people.