Spirituality And Technology: A Social Network For The Seriously Ill?

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On June 7 this year, baby Brighid would've turned 14. Brighid died nine days after she was born. But her mother's friend Sona Mehring has ensured that her legacy lives on through a website called CaringBridge.org. Started in 1997, CaringBridge aims to help people facing significant health challenges connect with friends and family. It's just like Facebook -- except that statuses about workday boredom are replaced with updates about blood tests and CT scans.

Mehring started the organization after a close friend was rushed to the hospital with a life-threatening pregnancy. Tasked with keeping friends and family updated about her friend's -- and prematurely-born baby Brighid's -- condition, Mehring quickly figured that a website would be more efficient than endless phone calls. Brighid didn't make it, but Mehring realized that an organization that created similar websites held the potential to help millions of families across the world. "It was obvious that CaringBridge could help any family going through a serious health challenge --- not only by letting everyone know what was happening but by bringing that loving, supportive community together," says Mehring.

She named it CaringBridge -- "Bridge" for Brighid.

Since then more than a billion people have visited the 266,000 websites created through the organization. The site is totally free, and is funded almost entirely through individual donations.

People with websites can update their journals, post pictures and read tributes and guestbook entries made by those who visit the site. The sites are often visited by more than just friends and family -- and the words of encouragement, frequently from complete strangers, go a long way in the protracted and frequently disheartening battle against illness. "Ninety nine percent of patients surveyed said that reading the guestbook on their CaringBridge site positively impacted their health journey," says Mehring.

But even in the event that a patient's journey doesn't end in recovery, CaringBridge can become a surprising source of strength and support for grieving family members.

The organization recently launched a mobile version of their website. The CaringBridge app lets people instantly create a private personal website and allows them to access and update their sites without having to use a computer.

Next on the horizon is a digital calender and "care coordination solution" to help ease the logistical difficulty of caring for someone who is severely ill. "There is ample opportunity to more deeply engage and empower the community members who gather to support someone dealing with a health crisis," says Mehring.

Comments

[Neil Vj]

04:41 PM on 06/05/2011

CaringBridge is an useful idea. Besides support, people want answers to their medical questions and look for them online. Online generic articles and forums do not answer their specific medical questions. We created www.askyourmedicalteam.com to provide answers to medical questions

[watergirlhawaii]

09:53 AM on 06/05/2011

I want to say Thank You to the developers and sponsors of CaringBridge for creating this valuable and treasured support resource that has enabled several of my freinds and family "to keep in touch" throughout several health crisises. God had blessed us through your work, and we are certainly send blessings to you and yours!

[judithdiva]

07:19 AM on 06/05/2011

I have recently had occasion to use CaringBridge during the serious illness of my spouse. It's a wonderful idea and an invaluable service.

[jjdnurse215]

07:00 AM on 06/05/2011

Social Networking had destoryed what we once knew as Neighborhoods, communities, now, since 9/11 communites and neighborhoods have all disappeared for the most part. I watched my neighborhood dry up, no open contact with neighbors and since moving found this new neighborhood even worse. This is what brought social networks like Facebook , twitter and the like, no need to cance face to face, rather be unknown and safe. As a psych nurse I handled Crisis Lines during 9/11, and could see this change happening more and more, with the tormados and such, what happens if it hits a community like mine, who would know what is missing? I tell you, this is the new way of this country. Sad really

[James Randolph Hillard]

08:19 PM on 06/03/2011

Thank you enormously for having highlighted the wonderful service provided by CaringBridge! I thought that I was completely healthy until last December when I thought that maybe I was a little tired, which led to a diagnosis of anemia, which led to a diagnosis of ulcer, which led to a diagnosis of stage 4 stomach cancer. CaringBridge has let me stay in touch with friends all over the world, has given me an incredible source of support and encouragement. It has also saved my wonderful secretary from having to answer questions about my illness every 20 minutes or so for the last six months. I am not sure that I would have put this story under the heading of "spirituality". A better heading might have been "kindness and humanity," but maybe that is what spirituality is. Thank you, also, for the Huffington Post, which has kept me in touch with the outside world while I have been mostly at home or at medical appoints.

[Angela Plante LaRoche]

05:25 PM on 06/03/2011

The support I find on CaringBridge is immeasurable. Its not just a fantastic took to keep our family and friends up to date on my daughters health-but an amazing way to "meet" other families and know their stories. Its very helpful to have this kind of support =)

[Colonel Muttonfield]

03:28 PM on 06/03/2011

One day, long ago, sitting at my command, I realized I could no longer remember what it felt like to be happy, to be real. I realized I was nothing more than a uniform, a rank, and a service record. My years as a soldier had washed away who I once was and there was no way to get it back. It seems like a thousand years since I was a small boy playing in the sun.

How did I come to this desolate place where there is nothing but loneliness and duty, where so much is lost and irretrieva­­bly gone? I had used the respect of others to dull this loneliness and that allowed me to continue it.

But now, each day, I am confronted with the same empty truth: that life is a practice in the art of having and letting go. If I could, I would gaze into the eyes of God and forget. But I can't. That gift, that peace, is not for me. Each day is the same empty day. Each evening is the same lonely vigil standing here in the ruins of my former greatness. I don't know exactly when it happeded. I don't recall one particular moment it happened. But, year after year, while waiting for the darkness to overcome me as it did so many of my comrads, I slowly realized that I had become that darkness. I am that darkness.

[On My Way 58]

12:38 AM on 06/05/2011

Finding people who felt like you is the first step in finding the light. They are out there - you just need to take the first step in finding them.

When I went through cancer for the 4th time, I finally realized I couldn't do it alone - the darknes was overtaking me. I will never forget just how terrifying that first step was...but I took it, and now the light is shining brightly that I am not alone and there is hope. Even though cancer may kill me in the end, there is hope that on the journey the light does shine.

[Colonel Muttonfield]

12:36 PM on 06/07/2011

Thank you for your kind words. I have found that it is only in the darkness of suffering that we are able to see clearly light ahead.

[susanrdo]

02:34 PM on 06/03/2011

I cannot say enough about CaringBridge . . . my husband went through two years of cancer treatments including a stem cell transplant at Fred Hutch here in Seattle. CaringBridge was a wonderful way to stay in touch without have your phone ringing off the hook and repeating yourself all the time "how things are going". It also gave us so much hope and cheer during dark times. It was also extremely good therapy to post updates. So glad that you are enlightening people on this wonderful wonderful resource. Good for you.

[Kathy Strickland Stanley]

01:56 PM on 06/03/2011

This is the only decent, compassionate thing I've ever seen on The Huffington Post...keep it up, guys; you just may expand your reader base.

[James Randolph Hillard]

08:21 PM on 06/03/2011

I have never seen anything in the Huffington Post that was not decent and compassionate. If you and I agree on nothing else, we certainly do agree on this article.