Mobilizing identity through social media; psychosocial support for young individuals with life-limiting conditions outside care

George Peat, a PhD student working on the School of Healthcare on the University of Leeds. Interested mainly qualitative research that examines self-perception, @gpeat1

Join our EBN chat on Twitter Wednesday 7^vol March 2018 from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. UK time, which we are going to concentrate on social media as psychosocial support for young individuals with life-limiting conditions. Participating within the Twitter chat requires a Twitter account; If you haven’t got one yet, you’ll be able to create an account on www.twitter.com. Once you’ve an account, contributing is simple and you’ll be able to follow the discussion by looking for links to #ebnjc (EBN chat hash tag) and contribute by sending a tweet (tweets are text messages currently limited to 140 characters), you’ve so as to add #ebnjc to your tweet because this may allow all participants to see your tweets.

Identity or self are psychological phenomena that over time many have tried to know, theorize, and make sense of. We can ask ourselves questions similar to: Who am I or what qualities make me who I’m? We can also wonder how others see us or what parts of our self others see? For a teen with a life-limiting illness, the answers to those questions can often be distorted and unclear. The longevity of a life-limiting illness may lead to the illness step by step encroaching on the young person’s identity to the purpose where the illness is perceived as an internalized a part of the self (Brown & Sourkes, 2006). This is usually complicated by working with health care professionals who are sometimes coping with a selected disease, versus person-specific dynamics that cause a teen to feel much more hidden as a result of their condition. Moreover, periods of being away from the academic and social environment as a result of relapses and treatment can often deprive a teen of the chance to present the variety and richness of their identity.

Social media is becoming a way for young people to mobilize their identity. Social media may be regarded as online tools that facilitate communication between individuals and communities, dissemination of data, ideas, messages, images, and other content, and infrequently collaboration with other users in real time (Ventola, 2014). Current research on this area suggests that young people can use social media to attach with and receive support from others (Donovan et al., 2014), feel empowered (Nesby and Salamonsen, 2016), and share their narratives (Keim -Malpass and Steeves, 2012 However, there’s a scarcity of research to know how social media may influence the identity of young individuals with life-limiting conditions. For example, whether it allows young individuals with life-limiting conditions to precise elements of their identity which may be less visible in numerous environments?

From a health skilled’s perspective, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (2017) policy on end-of-life care emphasizes the necessity for emotional and psychological support for young people receiving palliative care. Therefore, it is vital to concentrate on the potential opportunities to offer and supply such support. I would really like to make use of this Twitter chat to start out a discussion on the next questions:

1. How necessary/recognised is psychosocial support within the care plan for a teen with a life-limiting condition?
2. Can researchers/health professionals higher understand the identities of young individuals with life-limiting conditions through social media?
3. Is there a necessity to higher understand how young individuals with life-limiting illnesses can use social media and the resources available to them?
4. How can we higher facilitate the power of young individuals with life-limiting conditions to mobilize their identity?

Bibliography

Brown, M. R., & Sourkes, B. (2006). Psychotherapy in pediatric palliative care. Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics in North America. 15(3), 585-596

Donovan, E. E., LeFebvre, L., Tardiff, S., Brown, L. E., Love, B. (2014). Patterns of social support conveyed in response to displays of uncertainty in a web-based community of young adults with cancer. Journal of applied communication research. 42(4). 432-455

Keim-Malpass, J., and Steeves, H, R. (2012). Talking to death in a restaurant: Young women’s online narratives about cancer. Oncology Nursing Forum. 39(4). 373-378.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (2017). End-of-life take care of infants, children and adolescents. Retrieved October 13, 2017 from https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs160

Nesby, L., and Salamonsen, A. (2016). Youth blogging and serious illness. Medical humanities. 42. 46-51.

Ventola, CA (2014). Social media and healthcare professionals: advantages, risks and best practices. Pharmacy and Therapeutics. 39(7). 491.

(Visited 586 times, 1 visit today)