Thinking about taking this survey (10-15 min.) about online spiritual care communities? Here’s some of the history that has inspired this research!
Way back in 2016, Estelle Smith was a brand new Computer Science PhD student at the University of Minnesota. Coincidentally, that was the same time period when a new scientific collaboration team was forming between CaringBridge and the University of Minnesota. Since Estelle’s own mother had recently had a CaringBridge site in 2015 during her journey with cancer, Estelle was eager to join the collaboration and advance our scientific understanding of online support.
So…what has the research shown? If you’re looking for a deep dive, read the full scientific manuscripts linked below (no paywall!), or you can quickly skim the main points here:
- Estelle’s first paper, “Write for Life: Persisting in Online Health Communities with Expressive Writing and Social Support” (2017) showed that CaringBridge users who receive more supportive comments and write more expressively in their journals tend to use their journals for a longer period of time. (Full paper | short blog post)
- Her second paper, ““I Cannot Do All of this Alone”: Exploring Instrumental and Prayer Support in Online Health Communities” (2020) showed that many users tend to appreciate prayer as the most frequent and important form of support exchange that they receive on CaringBridge. (However, they value many other types of emotional and material forms of support, as well!) (Full paper | short blog post)
- In her third paper, “What is Spiritual Support and How Might It Impact the Design of Online Health Communities?” (2021), Estelle worked with CaringBridge users and employees, as well as healthcare professionals and diverse religious leaders, to come up with a definition of spiritual support that can be used to help guide future technology design. (Full paper | short blog post)
- Finally, her paper ““Thoughts & Prayers” or “💗 & 🙏”: How the Release of New Reactions on CaringBridge Reshapes Supportive Communication During Health Crises” (2023) evaluated CaringBridge’s launch of a “reactions” feature in early 2021. (Reactions are the clickable CaringBridge heart logo, prayer hands, happy face, and sad face below journal posts.) The science suggests that there’s a delicate balance between leaving “comments” and “reactions” on CaringBridge journals and that it’s hard to satisfy all users’ preferences–some people love the reactions, others would vastly prefer comments only. (Full paper | short blog post)
After finishing her PhD, Estelle moved to Colorado, where she is currently a professor of Computer Science at the Colorado School of Mines. Building on her early work with CaringBridge, she has focused her research career on understanding how to design online communities that can provide patients and caregivers with meaningful spiritual care and connection. To do so, she has partnered with numerous national organizations committed to chaplaincy and spiritual care.
If you’d like to contribute to this cutting-edge research, please take the survey now by clicking this link: https://mines.questionpro.com/spiritualcare.
Your input is enormously valued, and it will help scientists–and CaringBridge, too!–understand how to design support communities that can truly meet the needs of people on challenging health journeys. Thanks for your time, and here’s wishing you all the best in the new year ahead!
C. Estelle Smith, Ph.D. 