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Web Chats Help the Chronically Ill

Posted by Zonk on from the now-we-need-interactive-sites-that-do-real-customer-service dept.

Stephen Samuel writes "Both the CBC and the BBC are reporting on the results of a survey which found that along with an informative, up-to-date, and non-commercialized site, chat-rooms are crucial to the health and well-being of chronically ill patients being provided with 'interactive health communication applications'. Read the original summary of the report (PDF), or google's HTML translation of same" From the BBC article: "The researchers found such sites have largely positive effects on users, making them feel better informed and more socially supported. Overall, people who used such sites appeared to see improvements in the way they looked after their health and in their clinical condition. They also had improved self-efficacy - a person's belief in their ability to carry out potentially-beneficial actions. "

15 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. This just in... by Rob_Ogilvie · · Score: 5, Funny

    Socializing makes humans feel better.

    --
    Rob
    1. Re:This just in... by Nik13 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes it does. But socializing and finding people who understand when you're through something difficult can be hard. No offense, but unless you've been through this yourself (or perhaps a close friend or family member), you have NO idea how hard it can be... I was on a chronic pain management program not long ago (T4-T7 messed up), and it wasn't just the profesionnals that helped - it was great for all of us to see we're not alone, to find people that finally understand what you're though, that care, that believe you, that don't think it's in your head or that you're faking and make more friends. (OK, most people don't seem to doubt, but we still tend to believe they do...) Docs will give you pain meds, but it's quite frankly not enough.

      I've heard of 2 other places around here to meet people that live with chronic pain. One's at the hospital downtown (and the average person there is 50 years older than I am), or somewhere that's quite a long drive (and I can't drive because I'm taking too much morphine) and it's still all old folks... I haven't found any good forums or anything on IRC.

      Living with chronic pain (especially when you're single parent) is pretty hard, and I doubt living with any other chronic condition is any easier. I've been considering creating some kind of online help comminity for a while but I just don't have the time or energy right now.

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      ///<sig />
    2. Re:This just in... by goliard · · Score: 3, Informative

      You are being flip, but I'm a graduate student in Mental Health Counseling (as well as a web developer :), and a number of my professors -- including the quite wonderful one I had for my class in Group Therapy, the class text for which extensively documented the benefits of support groups -- are openly skeptical that computer-mediated communication (CMC) even counts as socializing!

      In a strange way, this research supports the controversial contention that CMC actually is socializing, because it shows that some of the results of in-person support groups may also be found in virtual support groups. That certainly suggests the same psychological processes and interpersonal dynamics are going on in both cases, and that is most definitely not a foregone conclusion!

      --
      -*- Any technology indistinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced -*-
  2. Wait, when... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..were Web Chats Help the Chronically II and Web Chats Help the Chronically I posted?

  3. Exception by obli · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know one chronic illness it doesn't do anything good for - MMORPG addictions.

  4. No man/woman is an island by OffTheLip · · Score: 3, Insightful

    One of the super secret benefits of the internet is the way the seemingly unconnected can be connected.

  5. Oh, we're all connected, all the time by glomph · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You'll never walk (or do anything else) alone! http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/technology/23col lege.html?emc=eta1

  6. So this means... by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 2, Funny
    Reading and posting on Slashdot makes me more well adjusted?

    WTF???

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  7. The one part that corporate America needs to see by Caspian · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...along with an informative, up-to-date, and non-commercialized site...


    Translation: Nobody likes pop-ups, pop-unders, annoying Flash ads, "Will you take our survey?" ads, or obvious commercial slant on Web pages.
    --
    With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
  8. Wired Humanity by adolfojp · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've seen a number of people get better from depression just by meeting people with similar conditions online.

    The web does't bring us apart, it brings us together :-)

    Adolfo

    PS. My last dates have been met online. It allows me to meet women with similar interests instead of just going to a bar and scanning whats available.

  9. I'm chronically III II. by Elad+Alon · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm chronically III II.

    --
    News for merdes. Shit that matters.
    Ask me about my sig.
  10. Trustworthiness by cagle_.25 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    FTA,
    "Be deemed trustworthy, both immediately and on subsequent or return visits. A site can establish its trustworthiness by: being accurate having no commercial links being authored or sponsored by a known trustworthy organisation (e.g. the NHS, a local hospital or well-known university) not displaying advertisements. Trust has to be maintained, and can be lost if the site is not updated regularly.
    This turns out to be the most important characteristic. My wife sees patients all the time whose parents have "diagnosed" them based on web info. The web info is usually designed to undermine the trust in the patient's primary care doc by appealing to knowledge that the "medical community has surpressed." The only way to win here is for docs to have information that is both accurate and *viewed* as accurate out there on the web, for free.
    --
    Human being (n.): A genetically human, genetically distinct, functioning organism.
  11. it helped me by slothman32 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It actually helped me. I seemed to talk less before I was on the web conversing with others, though I don't know if /. users are robots who can pass the Turing test. Since I am more introverted it actually help me become less.

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    Why don't you guys have friends or journals?
  12. Where the Doctor stops and Patient begins by Fox_1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The timing of this article is interesting in that I was doing a google search on my disease to catch up on the latest news and went to slashdot to give myself a break. In the treatment of a medical problem most of a Doctor's focus is on the immediate present symptoms. That's the way they were trained, that's the nature of a triage based health model. The problem is that if the medical problem isn't short term in nature much of the treatment is enough to get the patient out the door, but leaves that person ill-equipped to face the future of their disease/injury/etc. Sometimes there are support groups, but monthly meetings and sometimes just the lack of local membership usually make them of limited use. The online forums and websites dedicated to various chronic conditions are now starting to fill that need for Patients. Some of them are sponsored or run by Medical Professionals, however it's the Patients who actually make the site a success. People coming together to share information about their problems and support others in their time of need. I have only physically met 4 people with my disease in 15 years, online I have tapped into a community of 1000's, 10's of 1000's.

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    The rock, the vulture, and the chain
  13. Betcher rump it helps! by MsWillow · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've got secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. Can't take beta seron, can't find a doctor for novantrone, the only other drug for SPMS. I found out about a different drug therapy, antibiotics and statins, that I can get, and is helping me, from a BBS linked to multiplesclerosissucks.com. It's been a life- and sanity-saver for me.

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    Lemon curry?