Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a voluntary sector based befriending scheme in improving psychological wellbeing and quality of life for family carers of people with dementia.
Design: Single blind randomised controlled trial.
Setting: Community settings in East Anglia and London.
Participants: 236 family carers of people with primary progressive dementia.
Intervention: Contact with a befriender facilitator and offer of match with a trained lay volunteer befriender compared with no befriender facilitator contact; all participants continued to receive "usual care."
Main outcome measures: Carers' mood (hospital anxiety and depression scale-depression) and health related quality of life (EuroQoL) at 15 months post-randomisation.
Results: The intention to treat analysis showed no benefit for the intervention "access to a befriender facilitator" on the primary outcome measure or on any of the secondary outcome measures.
Conclusions: In common with many carers' services, befriending schemes are not taken up by all carers, and providing access to a befriending scheme is not effective in improving wellbeing. Trial registration Current CONTROLLED TRIALS: ISRCTN08130075.