Yet in some cases these policies and programs do not benefit the populations that need them the most, or they unintentionally undermine the health of the target population and others in their social network. For example, FMLA may benefit those who receive care, but it also may be financially prohibitive for caregivers who do not have an employed spouse or enough savings to support them through the time off work, yet those with the fewest financial resources and social ties may need assistance the most. Further, in rare cases, experimental programs have reported worse health outcomes among subgroups of participants. A randomized experiment of the effects of support groups for women with breast cancer found that, compared to women in the control group, the physical functioning of women who participated in the peer discussion group improved if they reported low levels of emotional support from their partners at baseline, but it deteriorated if they reported initially high levels (Helgeson et al. 2000). Another psychosocial intervention tested individualized emotional and instrumental support services in an effort to improve one-year survival outcomes
