mental health carers support So a Individual Plan is available for individuals and families who do not have group medical insurance provided by any carrier though an employer. Dean Health Plan offers different Individual Plan designs with varying benefit and coverage levels to fit your family’s healthcare and financial needs. Basically the geographical reach of the analysed conversation is difficult to determine owing to the efforts made to preserve the anonymity of participants.

a risk of this type of an approach however will be the loss of spontaneity and on p of that possible restriction of dialogue through direct observation by professionals, Mental health providers looking to develop findings specific to their service may seek to directly approach individuals within their identified geographical region.

As such And so it’s possible that lessons for specific geographical regions might be lost within the broader conversation. Additionally the restriction of needing internet access to participate in the conversation may mean that it’s not entirely representative for all mental health service users. Did you hear about something like that before? The pics of discussion imply that the conversation was primarily held between respondents within the United Kingdom and United States. Now this wide reach may limit the specific applicability of findings -for example discussions relating to the costing of insurance and medical service provision is, currently, of limited interest to participants in the UK.

mental health carers support Present study demonstrates the utility of online social media as both a discursive space in which individuals with experience of mental disorder may share information and develop understanding, and a medium of feedback to mental health service providers. Further research is required to establish potential individual benefit from the utilisation of such networks, its suitability as a means of service provision feedback and the potential role for, and user acceptability of, mental health service providers operating within the space. Our Facebook groups provide a safe environment where cares can exchange experiences and seek support when needed. Consequently, all posts within the group are private and won’t show on your wall. As a result, the groups are closed and moderated so only carers registered with us can participate, and all inappropriate posts are deleted. Lots of info can be found easily on the internet. You also need to be registered on Facebook to be able to participate.

mental health carers support There’re training sessions available for carers on Facebook and Twitter, have a look at our Events page or the latest newsletter for updated dates. Authors declare that they have no competing interests. Let’s say Elwell and colleagues reviewed the role of internet based forums for adolescents living with cancer and found evidence of practical and emotional support being provided, Social media and forum websites been examined as a resource for healthcare service users. I’m sure that the role of Twitter was reviewed in regards to the discussion of health screening procedures, just like mammography, finding a mixture of information and personal narrative experience being described by users. Internet based social media websites similar to Facebook (and Twitter (represent a growing facet of modern experience. Basically, internet based social media, like Twitter, has also received attention for its potential in supporting social activism where its role can be seen in linking groups gether and coordinating activity. These sites boast large numbers of users and their influence is increasingly being experienced in clinical practice. Carers Lewisham has a worker who support carers who are caring for relatives who have mental health difficulties and carers who themselves may have mental health difficulties just like anxiety or depression.

mental health carers support Things at Mental Health carers Arafmi been pretty quite since Executive Officer Jane Henty left in December Well, you might be happy to know, that following the appointment of a really new EO, Jenny Branton in July, things are set to hot up once again.

The present study focusses on a specific discussion as a case study to assess the role of the website as a medium for interpersonal communication by individuals with experience of mental disorder and possible source of feedback to mental health service providers.

Research was conducted in relation to the potential role of social media in the support of individuals with physical health conditions.

mental health carers support Internet based social media websites represent a growing space for interpersonal interaction.

Limited research exists exploring such utilisation by individuals with experience of mental health problems.

Nevertheless this positive interpretation was challenged, it should be proposed that access to wider support networks and knowledge should be beneficial for all users. Writing was incorporated into the data analysis process such that iterative presentations of data and explanation of themes gonna be reviewed and discussed. Material contradicting identified quotations and themes was specifically sought, Representative quotations were identified throughout the writing process. This is where it starts getting intriguing, right? While favouring the voices of those with sufficient privilege to access the space, despite a limiting factor to this engagement is that potential participants, who may benefit from such discussion, can be excluded due to lack of internet access.

That these pics received consideration within the conversation thread may represent the potential of social media platforms to allow discussion, reflection and sharing of experience by participants within the space provided.

Much of the discussion identified by the search strategy was concrete in nature -discussing parts of the care experience and practical means of addressing the concerns raised.

Whenever, reflecting on diagnosis as a means of accessing care, or support, but also on the manner of their construction and development. Parallel to this however, was a discussion that focussed more on individual experience in mental disorder. Ok, and now one of the most important parts. Participants also considered the difficulties experienced within therapeutic relationships and their reflection in a wider societal context. That’s where it starts getting really interesting.a qualitative content analysis approach was adopted in exploring these questions as it was believed that this would provide a pragmatic means of identifying salient themes displayed in the discourse between service users.

While themes are presented as discrete, overlap of content exists between them, Individual themes are described below.

This approach is analogous to other studies where large volumes of social media data are aggregated to develop information of use to clinical service provision.

That said, this group of individuals may gain benefit from such participation but this should be more difficult to identify and explore. I’m sure that the precise identity of participants in this project can not be verified. Notice, for the purpose of this study That’s a fact, it’s proposed that self identification as a mental health service user, through participation in the online conversation, allows an initial exploration of the role of online social media as a social space to be made. Basically the role of silent observer requires further exploration as studies, similar to Rier, observed that quite a few forum participants occupied the role of a silent lurker. Utilised search approach is unable to identify the role of those who may read the conversation but not participate directly in it. It is the possible role of researcher theoretical allegiance on the analysis process was addressed through discussion in team meetings.

Research team members were drawn from loads of theoretical orientations -psychiatry, mental health nursing and medical sociology.

The study therefore aimed to provide an initial exploration of the following.

Besides, the manner in which social media users with experience of mental disorder relate to each other and the social space during internet based interactions. Potential role of resources similar to Twitter for the provision of feedback on and engagement with mental health service user experience. Then, for the current project the website Twitter was used to allow a review of the utilisation of social media by mental health service users. Then again, the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. AS is funded by a NIHR doctoral research fellowship award. Through participation in this discussion individuals join a wider discourse that considers the balance of power between professional and service user.

Within the physical health literature the sharing of decision making power is described as the ‘pinnacle of patient centred care’. Within mental health practice a tension is still perceived however between the concepts of sharing power and more traditional models of care that ultimately consider risk and its control as paramount. Actually the remaining textual material was reviewed and combined in a thematic analysis to identify common themes of discussion. Output from the search strategy was combined in this type of a way that repeated material was eliminated and all individual material anonymised. Therefore, an electronic search was performed to identify material contributing to an online conversation entitled #dearmentalhealthprofessionals. Actually the presented study sought to use a case study conversation to explore the utilisation of online social media, in regards to its role as a social space for communication regarding the experience of mental disorder and as a means of understanding feedback on the experience of provided mental health care.

There’s also potential value for social media resources for health professionals to aid in the development of collaborative relationships with service users.

Surveying a bunch of mental health practitioners in the United States, Deen and colleagues found a high prevalence of experience with social media usage among professionals but identified a confusion regarding the role of such resources in clinical practice.

Reflecting on the complex ethical problems surrounding this practice, a bit of their participants describing searching internet resources for information relating to their patients. That said, this professional involvement, that may potentially be viewed as invasive, would need careful consideration for its acceptability by mental health service users. So this difficulty was recently highlighted through negative on line response to the efforts of the charity Samaritans (to introduce a service that would monitor social media feeds for material that may indicate suicidal ideation, that for some Twitter users represented an unacceptable invasion of privacy.

Did you know that the search strategy adopted for this study sought to capture material generated on two days.

For the purpose of this analysis it can be argued that the volume of material identified supports the validity of findings.

Accordingly the search engine favours material that has demonstrated popularity, let’s say through number of endorsements by ‘re tweets’, geographical biases are introduced through favouring material that is locationally close to the searcher, or emphasising material that contains references to other users within the searcher’s own network of contacts. Ultimately it can not be guaranteed that the search strategy was tally comprehensive in its reach. Now look, the nature of the search engine available on the website may limit claims of representativeness in the obtained material however. That said, this may raise difficulties for mental health services seeking to exploit the media as a means of eliciting feedback -although the volume of material produced may indicate that so that’s an acceptable medium of communication for mental health service users. It represents a phenomenon that can be difficult to reproduce in a purposive manner, as the greatest strength of the material observed in this study likely lies in its spontaneity.

Themes identified within this study provide important messages to mental health providers -highlighting the features that mental health service users view as crucial to service provision including the need for understanding the implications of diagnosis and the importance of therapeutic relationships.

These findings do not represent novel discussions as the role and importance of the therapeutic relationship within mental health care was well described in the academic literature and the difficulties with providing a service that is primarily biomedical in nature as an example been frequently commented upon and continues to generate much debate.

Despite this lack of novelty the spontaneous nature of the discussion is perhaps remarkable -this conversation represented a previously unadvertised event emerging solely through user participation, its themes are representative of a wider discourse and serve to demonstrate the salience of such discussion within modern society and the role of social media in supporting and empowering mental health service users. Ultimately the methods of this study were developed in accordance with ethical guidance published by the Association of Internet Researchers (so as to minimise the risk of individual distress through consideration of what protocol was reviewed and agreed by a University of Manchester research ethics committee.

That said, this study has outlined a role for resources, just like Twitter, in providing a discursive space and support for those with experiences of mental disorder. Methods used do not allow comment on the potential benefit or detriment from such use however. While providing a medium which is readily amenable to data collection and analysis allowing rapid interpretation of feedback, online social media could provide a resource through which barriers to feedback. Can be overcome. With a 140 character limit on communications, the nature of the Twitter platform, will be considered as reducing the potential for ‘indepth’ discussion. Accordingly the frequent presence of links to external resources, found through the reported search strategy, illustrate its potential strength as a central hub of discussion facilitating the coordination of groups of individuals with shared experience or interests.

In this way, internet social media could have been seen as providing a discursive resource that can provide access to greater numbers of people with shared experiences than might be expected through standard, more corporeal, now this may allow for the development of larger support networks or for more direct communication between service users and professionals to be facilitated. Draft writing was led by AS with critical feedback provided by the remaining authors at every stage. Thematic analysis was performed primarily by AS with direct supervisory support and comment by CS, MD and JS. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. AS conducted the ‘online’ search and collated results in electronic text format. It can also be argued that users, in agreeing to the terms and conditions of the website and after all openly contributing to a public discussion, have accepted that they broadcast into the public domain and the role of research in this type of a space ain’t specifically precluded. Nonetheless previous researchers have argued that such material exists in the public domain with the proviso that prominent biographical details are excluded, the role of consent to research on the basis of publicly available material, similar to that on is less clear.

I know it’s recognised that research on closed internet forums, available to specific registered users only, requires individual consent from all participants as the presence of lurking researchers can be viewed as invasive or hostile.

For the purpose of this research it was understood that users identifying with the conversation #dearmentalhealthprofessionals may have a past history of mental health difficulties and will be viewed as vulnerable research participants.

Research of internet based social media platforms potentially allows access to material relating to a large body of people, not all participants can be readily identifiable as individuals and seeking informed consent from any user can be complex. Whenever involving participants primarily from the United Kingdom and United States, that said, this conversation arose primarily over the weekend of the 10th -11th August 2013 and was conducted in English. Similarly, users may choose to reveal their geographical location through the website’s preference settings. I’m sure you heard about this. Users are identified by unique user names and can choose whether to reveal their real name to other users. Yes, that’s right! Privacy settings for accounts are determined by individual users and range from open access accounts that can be identified through general internet searches to closed accounts, the outputs of which are only visible to other users registered as followers.

Communications between groups of users can be facilitated through the use of hashtags where tweets are labeled such that other users can view contributions to conversations.

Although some minimal traffic continues through the hashtag regularly, the greatest flux of conversational material was generated over this weekend.

For the purpose of this study a hashtag conversation -#dearmentalhealthprofessionals was identified. I know that the website allows users to communicate in statements, tweets, of up to 140 characters in length. Furthermore, the native search engine provided at was used with an eye to identify tweets containing the marker #dearmentalhealthprofessionals and occurring on the dates 10 11th August Identified tweets were copied as text and imported into an electronic spreadsheet (Numbers for Apple Mac OS X The identified search material was reviewed allowing removal and hereupon ‘reread’ with an identifying code being applied to every tweet -this coding used phrasing from the source tweet to maintain close allegiance with original meaning.

Coding was conducted initially by AS with independent review by other members of the research team -coding disagreements were resolved through discussion leading to refinement of the coding framework.

Tweets were consequently organised as pointed out by descriptive headings and overarching themes were identified.

Initial extensive and overlapping codes were reduced to three core categories through team discussion. Overarching themes were discussed and developed during research team meetings. So this possibility is reinforced by an observation of It’s an interesting fact that the phenomena of social media platforms being used as this kind of a resource was previously explored, primarily for resources relating to physical health care.

Considering the role of internet based forums for discussion of HIV related problems, particularly disclosure of HIV status to sexual partners, Rier reported how such resources provided support regarding the information and discussion but how the material could often become deeply moralistic and inflammatory in nature.

In this study the authors observed that participants choosing contacts within a newly forming network preferentially selected individuals who closely matched them looking at the reported characteristics, potentially reducing the ability of networks to allow debate or encourage change.

Rier commented on the scarcity of novel arguments within the content of material he observed. Surely it’s possible that participants may choose to engage with material that serves only to reinforce their currently held beliefs. That said, this may therefore represent a risk in the nature of discussion that can occur through such fora. So it’s also unclear to what extent interaction through social media will lead to exposure to material that will challenge one’s natural standpoint and lead to genuine reflection. Certainly, please jump on and have a look and change the address in your favourites.

First thing to change is our name, we are now simply Mental Health Carers Australia. To reflect this change is our web site.org.au. Jenny brings extensive management experience in the not for profit and local government sectors, wide ranging experience in the disability sector including lived experience as a carer. Mental Health Carers Arafmi Australia are pleased to announce the appointment of our new Executive Officer Jenny Branton, who started in the role in July. Jenny is planning an ur around the country to meet with carers and organisations to so as a result the methodology utilised in this study is unable to demonstrate behavioural change resulting from participation in this conversation by either mental health service users or professionals.

Further work should be required to demonstrate such change.

It going to be hypothesised that the wider therefore this finding might be reflecting a withdrawal from concrete social activity for increased engagement with electronic communication. Similarly those with was conducted to explore this phenomenon. With a decrease in quality of life, one study exploring the perception of social support and quality of life of internet users revealed a more complex picture where internet use for social and informational support was weakly correlated with an increase in perceived social support.

Similarly, examining the role of a lot of mental disorder experiences, Perry and Pescosolido observed that those who had access to networks consisting of firmer connections were found to have better functional recovery outcomes at follow up.

The role of the internet and social media as a resource for mental health service users as a possible means for reducing stigma and promoting is highlighted.

Cornwell and Laumann showed that an increase in could have been controlled so as to generate pertinent feedback and how such feedback can be utilised alongside other feedback communication avenues.

Exploration of such material may involve identification of the author however and this should require greater ethical consideration than was necessary for this project, The prevalence of external material linked to and referenced in the discussion also invites further consideration.

Additional work must include the exploration of potential roles for mental health service providers, and the acceptability of this presence within this social space for all participants. Greaves and colleagues have developed techniques through which patient comments in relation to care are aggregated and used as a means to detect poor clinical care. Although, the use of anonymous automated data mining techniques may represent a more appropriate approach in future research as they provide an anonymous means of identifying large volumes of material. Examples of such methods have previously been used to explore emotional material contained within suicide notes. As is commented above some participants bypassed the 140 character limit through providing links to external resources.

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