Supporters Need Support: an Exploratory Analysis of Support Marshaling among Informal Dementia Care Partners

Caring for someone with dementia is a challenging task, and informal dementia care partners (CPs) rely on their own sources of support to manage the demands they face. Investigating how CPs marshal support, or the ways they work to increase the positive support they receive while minimizing nonsupport, can illuminate how CPs communicate around their own supportive needs. Thematic analysis of 23 semi-structured interviews revealed that CPs marshal support using direct and indirect support marshaling strategies, that there are various successes and challenges inherent in CP support marshaling, and that CPs have unique ways to manage their support.