Looking for Respite and Support: Technological Opportunities for Spousal Caregivers

Our research aims at informing the design of technological solutions to alleviate the stress resulting from the involvement of spouses of Alzheimer's disease patients as caregivers. For so doing, we have observed and analyzed the different offline solutions that are offered by a healthcare network in the Aube region (North-East of France). We discuss the key factors that we have identified for building an effective support network and identify five perspectives for the development of an online social support platform to lower the burden of spousal caregivers.