Designing Social Support Online Services for Communities of Family Caregivers

In the recent years, more and more people turned towards the Internet to find support, share their experience and feelings when they live difficult situation such as diseases. Considering this phenomenon, we are working with a community of caregivers of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease. We aim at providing them an online platform where they can share social support. Such a tool offers to overcome the limits of the current face-to-face practices within the community. Based on a deep study of social support practices and of these caregivers social capital, this paper presents our design approach of innovative information and communication services dedicated to social support.