There are times when Facebook or other social sites may not be appropriate venues. A good example is when someone has a major health issue. They or a loved one may want to share their health status with friends and family members so they can be aware of what’s going on. Having this option means the sick person can concentrate on getting well rather than on fielding a lot of well-meaning phone calls and emails.

Caring Bridge can be a good choice for this kind of communication. Find out more about it at www.caringbridge.org

Inspirational concept of a person building a bridge of wooden cubes with word care written on them

“Caring Bridge is a charitable nonprofit organization established in 1997 that offers free, personalized websites to people facing various medical conditions, hospitalization, medical treatment, and/or recovery from a significant accident, illness, injury or procedure. The purpose of the platform is to allow family members and friends to receive information about a particular individual. Visitors to the person’s website need to create a password to read updates on the person’s conditions and to post messages on that website.” (Wikipedia)

 

Some Reasons Not to Use Facebook to Communicate About Serious Health Issues

  • Not everyone has a Facebook account. It is unreasonable to ask your friends and family to create an account just so they can stay updated on your health issues.
  • Facebook may feel too public, even if all your loved ones happen to be members.
  • Also, even if you did choose to use Facebook and communicated via a Secret Group, there is the chance that someone in that group would share information to a wider group.

 

Using Caring Bridge

  • There is no charge to set up a personalized website on Caring Bridge, and there is no charge for the family members and friends to use this service. Unlike Facebook, however, users may receive occasional requests to donate to keep Caring Bridge operational.
  • Because a personalized website on Caring Bridge is password protected, privacy is protected.
  • There are settings within Caring Bridge to make it possible for those visiting the personalized website not to have to create an account in order to access the site, simplifying the process for the user.
  • When friends and family members “subscribe” to a personalized website, they are notified via email whenever a new message is posted by the owner of the site. They can then choose to read the message at their convenience.
  • Family members and friends can comment on the site in the same way you can comment on most social media sites – by commenting on a post made by the site’s owner.
  • Caring Bridge allows visitors to originate their own posts as well, something not available on Facebook. This allows friends and family to send messages of support, suggestions for second opinions, and even talk to each other to arrange things like driving the sick person to appointments (or their kids to school and other activities), handling shopping or other chores, delivering meals, etc., easily.
  • Like Facebook, the sick person can access their site as often as their strength allows and enjoy the warm wishes of family and friends from all over without being woken by phone calls or overwhelmed.

My friend Lisa has been part of several Caring Bridge groups and found it a wonderful way to find out how a loved one is doing without placing a burden on that person or their already frazzled family members. In one case, it even brought a family together. A cousin with whom she and her sister had not spoken in years became ill, and the cousin wrote a post indicating that whatever had transpired in the past was insignificant in the face of serious illness.

 

How About You?

How have you or your loved ones communicated with friends and family members when you or they have experienced a major health challenge? Have you or others you know used Caring Bridge? What has been your experience with it?

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 50 and up, to become more comfortable using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.

She works with business owners, business development professionals, leaders of nonprofit organizations, job seekers, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.