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PURPOSE: This paper reports parents' use of electronic bulletin board for social support during a pilot study of an Internet intervention.
METHODS: Parents participated for a mean of 13.83 weeks. The convenience sample consisted of six parents. Data were from site access information and parents' postings.
FINDINGS: Excluding one mother who checked frequently for messages, mothers have an average of 5.2 postings. Excluding this one mother, the postings/accesses ratio was greater than 60%. Parents made postings in four categories of "child's illness" having 37 comments and 36 comments for "group maintenance".
CONCLUSIONS: While the study findings cannot be generalized, these results suggest that parents will use electronic discussion boards.
Search terms: Mentally ill children, parents, telehealth intervention
Psychiatric hospitalization for school-age children is a time of great stress for their parents (Delaney & Engels-Scianna, 1996). Many hospitalizations are brief and centered on stabilizing the child and initiating or changing medications. The child typically returns to the family in a short time usually from 1 to 2 weeks. Parents report little change occurs in the child's behavior in such a short time (Scharer, 2002). Parents resume the care of their child and must make decisions about follow-up care, behavior management, and school. Parents need access to a support system that can provide emotional, and informational support during the hospitalization and posthospitalization (Scharer, 2002). In rural areas, the feasibility of face-to-face parent support groups to meet these needs is impractical because of the long commuting distances to the hospital. Even in urban areas, the complexities of family life often preclude ongoing attendance at family support groups.
This pilot study aims to test the effectiveness of an Internet-based social support intervention for parents of seriously mentally ill children, ages five to 12, who had been hospitalized in and discharged from a psychiatric unit. This article intends to discuss the parents' use of an electronic discussion board during the 4-month study period.
Background and Significance
The American Psychiatric Association (1992) reported that 12 million American children suffer from some form of mental illness. When compared to all other childhood illnesses, behavioral and emotional problems in children aged 1 to 19 have been cited as the group as conditions that most affected the children's quality of life (U.S. Public...