Benefits of blogging about a family illness or crisis

Kathryn Elison, MSW, shares the benefits of blogging during a family crisis and how it can help to express and process your emotions
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Benefits of blogging about a family illness or crisis

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A lot of families turn to blogging when they have a hospitalized child. I think this is a wonderful avenue to inform your friends and family of what's going on with your child's hospitalization. Another positive of blogging is that it allows you a forum to express your emotions, process what's going on, and get it out there. You can always go back later and read through it and remember the wonderful experiences that often come out of families coming together around a crisis. But I have to say there are drawbacks to blogging. When you have a child that has a new diagnosis, and families look to other families' blogs to learn information about their child's specific diagnosis, it can be frightening, it can be scary, and it can be too much information that's just applicable to that one child and not your own child. So when you're seeking information about your child's specific diagnosis, try to stay with the more medical websites and stay away from an individual blog, because it might not reflect what actually your family can expect during your child's hospitalization and medical treatment. And so when you think about who's out there blogging, it's the same folks that tend to fill out the customer satisfaction surveys. You're going to get the best experience and you're going to get the worst experience. But most people are somewhere in the middle. So keep that in mind when you're reading a blog. You could see this amazing, miraculous outcome or you could also see this horrible outcome. And what's likely going to happen for you and your child is somewhere in the middle, which is what the medical team and the medical research will tend to provide you direct information about.

Kathryn Elison, MSW, shares the benefits of blogging during a family crisis and how it can help to express and process your emotions

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Kathryn Elison, MSW

Clinical Social Worker, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Kathryn Elison is a Clinical Social Worker at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She was drawn to her profession because of her passion to provide support to families experiencing a medical crisis. Kathryn accompanies her patients and their families during one of the most stressful journeys of their lives, helping them navigate through this challenge and supporting them each step of the way. A native of North Carolina, Kathryn moved to Los Angeles, CA after receiving a Master of Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her free time, Kathryn enjoys exploring her new home state of California with her husband Jed and her dog Sallie.

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