Our Second Study! Adjusting an Available Online Peer Support Platform in a Program to Supplement the Treatment of Perinatal Depression and Anxiety
Great news! Our second study was recently published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research! You can find the full study here. Special shout out to our listeners that supported the members struggling with Perintatal Depresion and a very big shout out to @Heather for being such a great research coordinator!
We have another one that was also recently accepted, but not published yet. I'll share the details with you as soon as I can.
Here is the abstract:
ABSTRACT
Background: Perinatal depression and anxiety are common and debilitating conditions. Novel, cost effective services could improve the uptake and the impact of mental health resources among women who suffer from these conditions. E-mental health products are one example of such services. Many publically available e-mental health products exist, but these products lack validation and are not designed to be integrated into existing health care settings.
Objective: The objective of the study was to present a program to use 7 Cups of Tea (7Cups), an available technological platform that provides online peer (ie, listener) based emotional support, to supplement treatment for women experiencing perinatal depression or anxiety and to summarize patients feedback on the resultant program.
Methods: This study consisted of two stages. First, five clinicians specializing in the treatment of perinatal mood disorders received an overview of 7Cups. They provided feedback on the 7Cups platform and ways it could complement the existing treatment efforts to inform further adjustments. In the second stage, nine women with perinatal depression or anxiety used the platform for a single session and provided feedback.
Results: In response to clinicians feedback, guidelines for referring patients to use 7Cups as a supplement for treatment were created, and a training program for listeners was developed. Patients found the platform usable and useful and their attitudes toward the trained listeners were positive. Overall, patients noted a need for support outside the scheduled therapy time and believed that freely available online emotional support could help meet this need. Most patients were interested in receiving support from first time mothers and those who suffered in the past from perinatal mood disorders.
Conclusions: The study results highlight the use of 7Cups as a tool to introduce accessible and available support into existing treatment for women who suffer from perinatal mood disorders. Further research should focus on the benefits accrued from such a service. However, this article highlights how a publicly available eHealth product can be leveraged to create new services in a health care setting.
@GlenM I was one of the listeners who signed up to be available to chat with the women in this group. Unfortunately, that never occurred and I was a little disappointed. After reading about this study, I learned that there were only nine participants and they were only required to have one supportive chat, so it's not surprising, given that there were over forty listeners participating, that I was never selected. I was surprised, however, to learn that one of the listeners was fourteen years old. I find that rather astonishing and wonder if that is true.
@Harry53 thanks for signing up @Harry53! These are all preliminary studies. We'll be doing more of them in the future with more participatnts. You can think of this like building a house. We want to make sure we have the foundation done right and then we can start to build on top of it. We are getting there :). I appreciate all you do here and your willingess to help out in these studies! In terms of the 14 y/o, I'm really not sure. I find it to be surprising, but that seems to be what the person reported.
@GlenM Thank you, Glen! Ive been in the psychology/social work/counseling business for a long time, since 1979, in fact. I started out as a psychologist in Virginia, interestingly enough, at the Southside Training Center for the Mentally Retarded in Petersburg, and then at Southampton Correctional Center in Capron. In all my years of doing this kind of work I have not had an experience as rewarding and meaningful to me as being a listener here on the 7 Cups website. I am so thankful and grateful to you for creating such a wonderful opportunity for me, and for other caring people, to reach out and in our own small way heal the world one person at a time.
@Harry53 I had no idea! That is awesome. Wow! Very, very, cool. Hopefully we can find many more enlightened mental health professionals like you to join us. I'm very excited about this next leg of the journey.
Good news. It's good to be part of this community.
I also hope listeners are age appropriate.
Want to know more ...want to work more ...because I love 7cups
I need medical help.
@GlenM Where can we find the entire text?
@cupcake1234 The link is in the first line of Glen's post about the study on this forum page.
@Harry53 thank you sir!
