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), orgoogle'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. " Web Chats Help the Chronically Ill Log in/Create an Account | Top | 55 comments | Search Discussion Display Options Threshold: -1: 55 comments 0: 54 comments 1: 38 comments 2: 25 comments 3: 14 comments 4: 10 comments 5: 3 comments Flat Nested No Comments Threaded Oldest First Newest First Highest Scores First Oldest First (Ignore Threads) Newest First (Ignore Threads) The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. This just in... (Score:5, Funny) by Rob_Ogilvie (872621) <rob@axpr.net> on Saturday October 22, @02:51PM (#13853358) (http://rob.axpr.net/) Socializing makes humans feel better. [ Reply to This Re:This just in... (Score:4, Insightful) by Nik13 (837926) on Saturday October 22, @03:32PM (#13853535) 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. [ Reply to This | Parent Re:This just in... (Score:4, Informative) by goliard (46585) on Saturday October 22, @04:10PM (#13853700) 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! [ Reply to This | ParentRe:This just in... by Rob_Ogilvie (Score:1) Saturday October 22, @04:31PM3 replies beneath your current threshold. Wait, when... (Score:5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22, @02:52PM (#13853366) ..were Web Chats Help the Chronically II and Web Chats Help the Chronically I posted? [ Reply to ThisRe:Wait, when... by FreemanPatrickHenry (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @04:12PMRe:Wait, when... by eonlabs (Score:1) Saturday October 22, @10:22PM2 replies beneath your current threshold. Exception (Score:4, Funny) by obli (650741) on Saturday October 22, @02:52PM (#13853367) (http://obli.net/) I know one chronic illness it doesn't do anything good for - MMORPG addictions. [ Reply to ThisRe:Exception by pyrrhonist (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @02:59PM1 reply beneath your current threshold. No man/woman is an island (Score:4, Insightful) by OffTheLip (636691) on Saturday October 22, @02:52PM (#13853372) One of the super secret benefits of the internet is the way the seemingly unconnected can be connected. [ Reply to ThisOh, we're all connected, all the time by glomph (Score:3) Saturday October 22, @02:58PM A Flock of people. (Score:1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22, @02:53PM (#13853374) In other words as social beings we don't do well without contact with others. [ Reply to This Seems obvious (Score:1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22, @02:58PM (#13853392) Social interaction with others in a similar situation and becoming an active participant in your treatment. The chat room part is just a new convenient mechanism for accomplishing that. [ Reply to This So this means... (Score:3, Funny) by $RANDOMLUSER (804576) on Saturday October 22, @03:00PM (#13853407) Reading and posting on Slashdot makes me more well adjusted?WTF??? [ Reply to This The one part that corporate America needs to see (Score:5, Insightful) by Caspian (99221) on Saturday October 22, @03:08PM (#13853437) ...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. [ Reply to ThisRe:The one part that corporate America needs to se by VJ42 (Score:1) Saturday October 22, @03:15PMRe:part corporate America needs to see-Double Visi by VJ42 (Score:1) Saturday October 22, @03:56PM1 reply beneath your current threshold. Perpetuating (Score:1) by obli (650741) on Saturday October 22, @03:09PM (#13853442) (http://obli.net/) One of the major things that influence the treatment of an illness, especially in psychology is the patient and doctor's belief that the treatment will actually work.Now wouldn't this study just perpetuate the positive effects of socializing over the internet by making patients think it's a part of the treatment that will work? Sounds good to me. [ Reply to This Is this like A New Hope starting at IV? (Score:1, Redundant) by IainMH (176964) on Saturday October 22, @03:10PM (#13853444) When are 'Web Chats Help the Chronicly' 1 & 2 coming out? [ Reply to ThisRe:Is this like A New Hope starting at IV? by FidelCatsro (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @03:22PM I wonder if this works for investing... (Score:2) by ScentCone (795499) on Saturday October 22, @03:12PM (#13853453) Because the people helping out with all of that interactive, positive-anecdote information on Exploding Growth Micro-Cap Stocks all seem so generous with their time, and their message boards are all so positive and upbeat. I always feel so good about the time I spend learning about my options. [ Reply to This Wired Humanity (Score:4, Insightful) by adolfojp (730818) on Saturday October 22, @03:16PM (#13853474) 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. [ Reply to ThisRe:Wired Humanity by LiquidCoooled (Score:1) Saturday October 22, @03:39PMRe:Wired Humanity by mccalli (Score:2) Saturday October 22, @03:40PM I'm chronically III II. (Score:2, Funny) by Elad Alon (835764) on Saturday October 22, @03:17PM (#13853482) I'm chronically III II. [ Reply to This Trustworthiness (Score:3, Interesting) by cagle_.25 (715952) on Saturday October 22, @03:20PM (#13853492) (Last Journal: Thursday August 25, @07:44PM) 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. [ Reply to ThisRe:Trustworthiness by SandiConoverJones (Score:1) Saturday October 22, @11:12PM Okay, offtopic... (Score:2) by SharpFang (651121) on Saturday October 22, @03:22PM (#13853499) (http://sharpy.xox.pl/ | Last Journal: Wednesday September 14, @03:12PM) ...but shoudln't something be done about the fonts? I read the title as "..,chronically 3". I reread it three times before I got it, I=l and they look totally identical. People in computer security business should treat this seriously, there are already viruses using names like RundII.exe [ Reply to This it helped me (Score:4, Insightful) by slothman32 (629113) <pjackso5.rochester@rr@com> on Saturday October 22, @03:36PM (#13853551) (http://www.thegaminguniverse.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday August 10, @08:47PM) 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. [ Reply to ThisRe:it helped me by Fruit (Score:1) Saturday October 22, @07:25PM A typical chat (Score:2) by Ranger (1783) on Saturday October 22, @03:51PM (#13853619) Is it really a good idea to hook sick people up with sick people? I can imagine how it might go: *[sick_person] enters the chatroom.**[chatter] enters the chatroom.*sick person: Hi, I have three months to live.chatter: What are you wearing?sick_person: I'm wearing a hospital gown.chatter: Is it open at the front or the back?sick_person: Huh? The back. ... And it's all downhill from there. [ Reply to This Only fair (Score:1) by Slashdiddly (917720) on Saturday October 22, @04:07PM (#13853691) Considering how many get chronically ill in the first place [ Reply to This Where the Doctor stops and Patient begins (Score:4, Insightful) by Fox_1 (128616) on Saturday October 22, @04:17PM (#13853735) 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. [ Reply to This Ironic... (Score:2) by moviepig.com (745183) on Saturday October 22, @04:35PM (#13853821) (http://www.moviepig.com/) Web Chats Help the Chronically IllSo, web-chatting is a cure. And all this time I thought it was a symptom... [ Reply to This1 reply beneath your current threshold. Betcher rump it helps! (Score:3, Informative) by MsWillow (17812) * on Saturday October 22, @05:04PM (#13853952) (Last Journal: Friday October 21, @07:09PM) 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. [ Reply to This Paranoid Schizophrenia (Score:2) by grumpygrodyguy (603716) on Saturday October 22, @05:16PM (#13854018) Can anyone recommend a good chat-room for sufferers of Paranoid Schizophrenia? [ Reply to This1 reply beneath your current threshold. Good info (Score:2) by Dark Paladin (116525) * <[ten.lemmuhnhoj] [ta] [lemmuhj]> on Saturday October 22, @05:54PM (#13854147) (http://www.theapprenticepaladin.com/) I've been working on a project to secure this communications in a health care environment - this way, veterans at home with disabilities can still communicate with their fellow veterans/health care physicians, but in a secure environment so HIPAA guidelines are met. I'll have to show this to my boss, but this is encouraging. [ Reply to This web chat (Score:1) by digster (924935) on Saturday October 22, @06:05PM (#13854193) Havingsuffered chronic fatigue syndrome for 2 yrs, and been confined to a house for a yr due to it, i can assure you that being able to talk to ppl, even not specifically relalting to your illness is invaluable. A big part of chronic illness is the fact you suddenly become disengaged from society. Friends, family slowy start to stay away as your not the person you once were. The web based chat takes away the necessity of being physically capable of actually going somewhere to talk. It kept me sane through the long hours of many days and nights confined in a chair, and i even managed to be useful by volunteering as tech support for gamespy arcade, thus lifting my self worth and self esteem when it was rock bottom, so to all doubters, wait till its your turn, you will count it as a blessing. [ Reply to This1 reply beneath your current threshold.6 replies beneath your current threshold.