Effectiveness of individual counseling by professional and peer helpers for family caregivers of the elderly.

This study of the effectiveness of individual counseling for daughters and daughters-in-law (N = 87) who were the primary caregivers for frail elderly parents revealed that participants who received professional counseling demonstrated significantly better outcomes than a no-treatment control group in regard to subjective well-being, level of psychiatric symptomatology, and perceived change in aspects of the caregiver-care-receiver relationship. Participants who received peer counseling demonstrated similar gains but did not improve significantly more than did control subjects in subjective well-being. Both forms of counseling had no significant effect on caregivers' formal and informal social support networks.