| Sumario: | As they strive to maintain persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the home, caregivers experience needs for various types of social support, such as relevant information, encouragement and affirmation, and help with decision making (George & Gwyther, 1986; Ryan & Austin, 1989). Existing approaches to providing social support include face-to-face groups and educational activities. These intervention strategies require caregivers to arrive at a certain place at an appointed time, respond in socially desirable ways, and define their social support needs in terms of the nature of the social support provided. Many caregivers cannot avail themselves of these benefits because of competing demands including but not limited to the responsibilities of caregiving. ComputerLink is an electronic network designed to provide social support to caregivers of persons with AD. Through computer terminals placed in their homes, caregivers can access ComputerLink at a time convenient to them and choose from a variety of features. ComputerLink represents an innovative strategy to deliver social support to home-based caregivers. Social support served as the benchmark for the design of this innovation. Features found to be successful in engendering social support, such as peer contact and information, were incorporated into ComputerLink. This article describes the characteristics of ComputerLink and assesses its success as an innovation.
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