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A family's coping resources are severely tested when a member is stricken with dementia. The dementia patient suffers progressivecognitive deficits and memory loss. This cognitive decline generally occurs over a three-to tenyear period, and the patient is increasingly limited in performing such activities of daily living as dressing and toileting. Thus most patients rely on their family to provide essential and intense care. Currently over onehalf million severely demented patients are cared for in the home, 1 and family caregivers to these patients experience the pain of seeing a relative slowly deteriorate mentally with virtually no hope of reversing the condition. Caregivers also face the objective difficulties associated with prolonged caregiving, such as social isolation, financial drain, and heavy physical labor.'These and other problems contribute to a sense of the burden experienced by many caregivers.'A caregiver'to a …