Private support groups for caregivers on Facebook are at your fingertips
Caring for an older adult can be a difficult and isolating experience.
An effective way to reduce stress and not feel so alone is to join a caregiver support group.
On Facebook, there are many private groups dedicated to families who are caring for older adults.
They’re completely free and allow you to get support, vent, or ask questions anytime – day or night. If you use a smartphone, you can participate no matter where you are.
We share 14 top Facebook support groups for caregivers, describe each group’s focus (Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, aging parents, general caregiving, etc.), and explain how to join.
14 private support groups for caregivers on Facebook
Each of these 14 group names is linked to their private group page on Facebook.
We’ve also included information from each group’s description so you’ll know which topics each one focuses on.
1. Memory People
Memory People™ is an Alzheimer’s/dementia and memory impairment support and awareness group created November 2010 by Rick Phelps, a patient himself, diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 57.
We don’t talk about miracle cures or false remedies here. We share about the reality of dementia and memory impairment, and through support and education, we find the ability to take another step each day in this journey.
Memory People is a safe, comfortable place to find real-time support for those touched by dementia related diseases and any type of memory impairments, including TBI, etc.
2. Dementia Caregivers Support Group
We are here for caregivers taking care of Dementia and Alzheimer’s afflicted loved ones.
Designed to stimulate conversation and ensure all members a safe haven in posting personal feelings.
3. Alzheimers and Dementia Caregivers Support
You will see posts here that may upset you: it’s honest, it’s raw, it’s brutal, and it’s the truth.
This page has a singular purpose: to be a supportive haven where dementia caregivers can share their struggles without fear of judgment or reprisal.
4. The Purple Sherpa Basecamp (Dementia Family Caregiver Support Group)
Are you a care-partner for a loved one who has Alzheimer’s Disease and/or another form of dementia? You’re in the right place.
I was my father’s primary caregiver for more than seven years (he died in July 2017 from end stage Alzheimer’s, with a secondary diagnosis of vascular dementia) and it was the most exhausting, frightening, & loving experience I’ve ever had.
I started this group to be a place to share what we’ve learned as care-partners, to vent and support one another, and to break the silence that leaves so many caregivers feeling alone.
5. Caring for Elderly Parents
Our turn to parent: helping our elderly loved ones negotiate the world is the hardest job we’ve ever undertaken.
As we learn to cope we share info, vent our frustrations, and share support.
6. The Caregiver Space Community
Are you providing care for someone who is elderly, ill, or disabled? Join our supportive community of spousal caregivers.
This is a private space for all caregivers to connect. Both family and professional caregivers are welcome.
7. Working Daughter
This is a space for women who are balancing caring for an aging parent with their career and the rest of their life.
Join us for community, support, encouragement. Share your questions and your best advice.
8. Caregivers Connect
Welcome to Caregivers Connect, a community created to bring a voice to family caregivers, and related care-industry professionals, who are caring for a parent, spouse, or loved one.
We share personal experiences, advice, and stories with one another in order to provide support along each of our journeys.
Whether you are a caregiver, have been a caregiver, or know a caregiver, we hope that you can find some inspiration, and helpful resources along the way. This group is sponsored by Lively.
9. Parenting Aging Parents
Welcome to Parenting Aging Parents, a community of “adult children” helping their aging parents or preparing to be a caregiver. We are glad you found us!
This is a place to discuss all aspects of caring for aging parents. It is a judgment-free zone and we encourage (and occasionally enforce) kind and respectful discussion. Ask questions. Share your experiences. Get insight. Support others. Even vent if you need to.
10. Caring For The Caregiver Support Group
This is a support group intended to be a private setting for all of us Caregivers to express our thoughts & feelings.
11. Caregivers of Narcissistic Family Members
This is a safe place to discuss the day to day care of a “narcissistic loved one”. A free place to vent and offer help and support of what we are going through.
12. Caregivers Assist Support Group
Caregivers Assist Support Group is an online community of dedicated caregivers.
The purpose of this group is to share best caregiving practices and learn how to live a healthy prosperous life as a caregiver.
13. All Hands on Deck, support, advice and a safe space for dementia caregivers
Sometimes we can feel very alone and all at sea, sharing stories with others in the same boat can really help us find our own way forwards or regroup to carry on.
14. Sandwich Generation
How To Cope With Elderly Parents…This is a group where we can vent, give ideas on how to handle taking care of our elderly parents!
A Private Facebook Group: 1) Group name, 2) Join Group button, 3) Description of group, 4) Private group label, 5) Number of members
How to sign up for a private Facebook group
These 14 support groups for caregivers are private, which means you must join the group before you can see any posts or participate in the discussion.
You can feel safe posting or commenting because your activity inside the group will only be seen by other group members and won’t show on your personal Facebook page.
Your Facebook friends would only see your activity within that group if they were also a member of that same group.
It’s easy to sign up for a private group:
- Sign in to your Facebook account. If you don’t already have an account, it’s easy to set one up. Here are tips on creating a Facebook account.
- Go to the Facebook group you’d like to join (links included below).
- Click the “Join Group” button to send a request to the group administrators.
- Wait to be admitted into the group – check the page later if you don’t get a message or notification.
- Click here for more tips on joining a private Facebook group.
Check the “About this group” section of the group page to find out what it’s focused on. Many groups include special instructions to join or community guidelines in this section.
In the above image of a caregiver support group’s private Facebook group page, you’ll notice: 1) the group name, 2) the “Join Group” button, 3) the group’s description information (click “See More” to see the whole description), 4) it’s a Private Group, 5) the number of people in the group.
Recommended for you:
- 8 Benefits of Caregiver Support Groups
- 5 Top Mobile Apps for Caregiver Stress Relief
- 7 Ways of Dealing with Caregiver Guilt That Improve Health
By DailyCaring Editorial Team
This article wasn’t sponsored and doesn’t contain affiliate links. For more information, see How We Make Money.
Betty Sue Hargrove
I am the caregiver for my husband who has dementia It hasn’t been pinned down to any one form. I know we are 78 years old and have been married for 58 years I feel so alone just he and I ! I want to be able to visit with people. We live in a rural area of a small town. All the services are not accessible here.
DailyCaring
Since you live in a more remote area, you may first want to try connecting with others online through some of these private Facebook groups suggested above. Or, perhaps you could contact a local faith or service organization to see if they would have social programs that would suit your needs.
Jane
I am not on Facebook and don’t care to join that particular entity. I care for my 97 year old mother who has numerous physical health issues, is almost deaf (refuses hearing aids), and has cognitive impairment. Are there support groups online or blogs that are interactive?
Thank you.
DailyCaring
Currently, many caregiver support groups are meeting via phone or video chat. We’ve got suggestions on how to find a local group here – 8 Benefits of Caregiver Support Groups https://dailycaring.com/8-benefits-of-caregiver-support-groups/
Shelley Webb
Thank you for mentioning our group, Caregivers Connect! It’s always the members who make the group what it is and we’re so grateful to have such wonderful people in ours.
DailyCaring
Thanks for creating such a wonderful place where caregivers can support each other!
Cameron Crawford
Another wonderful group is the Aging Parent Tribe. Meant to originally equip, connect, and educate local caregivers in Denver – it now boast members from all over.
Very warm and personable. With over 1,000 members, it is a great group for family caregivers to learn and engage. And they post LOTS of Daily Caring Articles. 😉
https://www.facebook.com/groups/agingparenttribesouthdenver/
DailyCaring
Thanks for the great suggestion and for sharing our articles!
Phyllis A Denison
I am on 2 groups and those are the only places we caregivers have to vent, ask questions, get advice, share stories and often humor. Our PCP’s don’t help. Neurologists and Neuropsychologists don’t help. We do get some help, answers, guidance from county agencies, home health and hospice companies, but overall, we are on our own.
Here in AZ, as it must be in other states, those of us without the income to support an average annual cost for a LO to be in facility of $70K and up, have to turn to the state’s Medicaid long term care solution and jump through all of the many and confusing hoops to be able to have placement.
Sometimes, the placement available is in a sub standard facility but there are no other options.
Our fixed incomes are that while costs of care as well as rents continue to rise.
Those of us without families to turn to, or friends who would step in and help, are basically – excuse the crude word – screwed.
Thank goodness for these groups whose members understand and help us to keep going, day after day.
DailyCaring
We’re so glad that you’ve found fellow caregivers to get support from in these wonderful groups 💜
Rhodella Brown
Is there one specifically for Lewy Body Dementia? I am really in need of that support group online.
DailyCaring
The Lewy Body Dementia Association has an online tool that helps you locate support groups in your area (and online). Visit this page to use it – https://www.lbda.org/local-support-groups/
If you’re interested in finding a private Facebook Group, go to your Facebook page, and enter the phrase “lewy body dementia support group” into the search bar. That should bring up a list of Lewy Body Dementia support groups that you can browse to find one that interests you.
Nadia | Timetocarryon
I requested to join the Sandwich Generation group months ago but unfortunately have not heard back from anyone. That’s one of the reasons why I decided to create my own site to talk about the challenges of managing young kids with elderly/sick parent with dementia. There aren’t enough places for support to go to online for this group.
DailyCaring
We’re so sorry to hear that. Perhaps you could message the group admin in case there was a technical glitch? It’s great that you’ve decided to start your own group though, there are so many different situations and it can be so helpful to find others who are facing very similar challenging.
LISA S WARREN
Hi, I would like to recommend one other FB support group that I have been in and find very helpful and supportive: The Purple Sherpa Base Camp
You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThePurpleSherpaBasecamp/
DailyCaring
Thanks for the recommendation!
Michele Coats
I have to say that group 11 should not be a recommendation. I was accepted to join and I read numerous posts before I decided it was all about hate, not love. There was no understanding of the supposed “loved one” that had Dementia and was in need of extra understanding. It should be renamed to “It’s all about me, you need to die.” How disappointing and shocking.
DailyCaring
The 11th group, Caregivers of Narcissistic Family Members, is specifically for people who are caring for a parent who is a narcissist. True narcissism causes abusive behavior that is severely damaging to those close to them, especially a child.
It can be tough for those who have not experienced this behavior to understand what these adult children are going through and how challenging it is to care for someone who was abusive toward them in the past and continues to be abusive in the present, despite all the care that’s being provided.
That’s why this group exists. It’s a jugement-free place for those who experienced the abuse and continue to do their best to care for someone who is still abusive. They can vent and share their stories with others who understand the situation.
Leslie Ann Fowler
Where can I leave a question. It is after midnight and I should be in bed. Tomorrow I have to go out of town to attend a 9 AM Monday morning with my sister where I’ve evicted her from mom’s house. I have mom’s statutory power of attorney and cannot walk and is in a skilled nursing center, the same one as my husband who has end stage COPD. My husband is on Medicaid and is in a hospice. My mom is private pay. Mom’s business landed on me, the eldest, since she did nothing after daddy’s death in 9/65. My sister left home after high school graduation around ’79 and wound up on the streets out of state. Mom always sent her money via Walmart, with several $600 checks being kept by whoever my sister said to send it to so she could get it later. Sis finally got a paid by mom bus ticket home 6 years ago, but on the way back home she found, at a stop in CA somewhere (she lived in Washington State) and screamed she was hungry. APS got called, fed her and she was on her merry way home back to Texas.. My husband and I picked her up near the downtown Dallas bus station. I needed to use the McDonald’s restroom and I happened to be the person right behind her. She was so unkept I never gave her a glance until i mentioned her name. Long story short, she was put on another bus to go back home to mom but declared she did no housework and rescued dozens of cats into mom’s home without her permission. Never cleaned up the inside poop. Will not go to MH/MR as she doesn’t want people to think her crazy even though she threatened my mom in her own home about throwing away her hoarded stuff. Mom turns 90 next month. APS has been no help. My own husband has end stage COPD and is dying (mom and he are in the same skilled nursing facility). I have a eviction hearing this coming monday to get sister out to get her hoarded stuff out and remaining raising of cats inside mom’s home against her wishes for the past 6 years. I just want to bulldoze the house, but sis has a right to answer to her eviction. mom has dementia and can’t remember a sentence just mentioned.
DailyCaring
I’m so sorry this is happening. It sounds like an incredibly stressful and challenging situation. To help evict your sister, you might be able to get legal help from the local Legal Aid Society (low cost or free legal services) or an elder law attorney. Attorneys typically do free consultations, so you could at least find out if they could help and if their rates were in your budget.
You might also want to contact your local Area Agency on Aging to see if they can connect you with local organizations that could help you. They may also know how to get in touch with your local Legal Aid Society.
Area Agency on Aging info — http://dailycaring.com/local-community-resources-for-seniors-and-caregivers-area-agency-on-aging/
Elder law attorney info — http://dailycaring.com/how-an-elder-law-attorney-can-help/
Susan Kiser Scarff
When my husband’s disease took hold, the daily activities we had breezed through before his diagnosis became arduous tasks and he required constant supervision. As his condition worsened, I was left with only one option—to become his primary in-home caregiver. The job was grueling, presenting both a physical and emotional hardship.
Caregiving led me to seek as well as impart support …. ultimately my sister and I put our pens to paper. We were hoping that a public Facebook page would offer that helping hand — https://www.facebook.com/caregiving101/
I realized how many people were trying to figuring out the adjusted role of caregiver alone. As a dementia caregiver I never felt so alone in my life and did/do not want others to feel the same.
Our primary goals are to offer help, support, advice, guidance, humor, and distractions from life in paradise.
After numerous doctors’ appointments ending in frustration, my husband was diagnosed by Dr. Bruce Miller at the University of San Francisco, with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA), a form of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). There is no cure for dementia, and pharmaceutical treatments to help control symptoms and behavioral issues are limited in what they can accomplish.
My husband, Red, passed peacefully, December 6th, 2006. His brain autopsy provided an accurate diagnosis of Semantic dementia with Lewy bodies present.