The Canadian Study of Health and

Aging1 has indicated that almost 50 % of the elderly in Canada are already assisted primarily by informal caregivers (unpaid family and friends) in a community set-ting. This has great public health implica-tions in light of the projected increase of our elderly population. There is a need to explore a variety of means to support these caregivers in ways that are acceptable to them. A dearth of research is available on the preferences of these caregivers for dif-ferent types of support. A recent study conducted among community-living caregivers of persons with dementia indicated a stronger interest in receiving support via telephone and newsletter than through support groups or via computer. Little is known of the prefer-ences of these types of support (or other types of support such as the use of volun-teers)2-5 among larger samples of caregivers. The aim of this paper is to describe how interested caregivers of seniors are in various support strategies using a large national sample of caregivers. We compare the pref-erences of caregivers of persons with demen-tia with other caregivers since there is strong evidence that dementia care is different from other types of family caregiving.