Long term care residents are ‘unbefriended’ if they lack decision-making capacity and a family member or a friend to act as their guardian. Little is known about these residents although they are among the most vulnerable older adults generally and especially in long term care. Stephanie Chamberlain and Dr Carole Estabrooks will describe a research project examining the characteristics and potentially unmet care needs of unbefriended residents in long term care. This presentation will describe what is currently known about unbefriended residents and selected (very) preliminary results from interviews with long term care staff and public guardian representatives in Alberta.