Email Support Group
Email Support Groups- Using email to send messages to support group members and leading a discussion via member’s email accounts. When one member of a group sends an email message to the group, everyone in the group receives a copy.
Examples: GriefNet Support Groups,
Yahoo Groups-Bereavement from Brain Cancer
(Yahoo Groups acts as both a message board and email support group)
Email support groups allow for peer contact in the email setting. A group facilitator can send out discussions for the group to have through email, and all responses will be shared with the group as they respond.
Benefits for using: Allows teens to connect and share their grieving processes on their own time (GriefNet, 2008); also as in email it may be more cost-effective, less-time consuming and more convenient (Campbell, 2007), and may be more applicable in a group setting while sheltering adolescents from the public of the Internet.
Concerns for using: Shares email addresses of entire group with one another, which could lead to private conversations from the rest of the group or cyber-bullying; also there is still a concern for loss of context if you don’t fully explain yourself through your words, and the tone can be misleading if it is misinterpreted from the other end; email is less personal than meeting face-to-face; and contact may be inconsistent due to the adolescent’s access to their email (Campbell, 2007).
How much control does one have: In this communication method, you can only control what is being said and monitor what has happened after it has been done. Setting up rules ahead of time for expectations will help keep problems at bay. However, if two teens break off and email one another privately from the group, you will not have any knowledge or control of their conversation.
What are security and privacy concerns: Privacy can be a risk factor if your or the teen’s email is hacked. Make sure if you are going to be emailing clients that you always log off your email provider or computer when stepping away from your desk and never give out your password. Also make sure teens understand it is not safe to give out passwords or not log out. Make sure all group members are aware of the behavior that is expected when they respond to emails and that inappropriate conversations or language is not tolerated. Also make sure they are clear not to share other responses with people outside of the group, as it would be easy for them to forward a private email to someone outside of the group. Confidentiality can be at risk if a adolescent member forwards a response to someone outside of the group.
What are legality concerns: Check with your agency what their policy is about communicating with adolescents through emails. Most agencies do not allow contacting clients via email so for you to be able to have email contact; policies may need to be updated with a protocol for what topics will be discussed in emails and how to handle adolescents who do not follow the email support group rules need to be addressed. Always keep records of the conversations with clients either by saving emails or printing and saving them in a locked file at the office for documentation purposes.
Time management: Email contact should not add too much time to a group facilitator's day as you can respond to emails at your leisure, but frequently check emails to make sure the discussion is ongoing and appropriate.
Extra Tip: If you are going to be the only one communicating through emails and the teens do not need to know each other’s email addresses you can put their addresses onto the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) line. “It is a way of addressing mail to more than one person so that everyone's address is not displayed for all to see” (Harma, 2003). This way they will not know each other’s email contacts from your email.
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