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2 BACKGROUND
The introduction of mobile technologies is changing
and influencing the way society communicates as
well as the entire framework of society. The primary
determinants of communication, space and time, are
quickly disappearing as the introduction of mobile
phones into society keeps people available for
contact wherever they are at any time of day.
Patterns of communication that were shaped by a
person’s central geographic position in respect to the
social network they participated in, as well as their
ability to share information, are no longer restricted
by human relocation or geographic boundaries
(Hossain et al., 2007). They are now configured and
arranged by the relevancy of the information one has
to give to the network. This shared information is
only relevant if it fits the needs of the users within a
social network, the available operating system in the
technology used to communicate, and the geo-
graphic environment of the user at the time of their
communication/information needs.
A social network is the structure existing among
a set of people and their relationships that act as a
source of social support. Social support has been
defined as all or part of the following: the act of
providing a resource; the outcome of support (such
as having a sense of well-being or being cared for);
and as a relationship between the recipient and
provider. While different from the concept of social
support, social networks and social support are inter-
related.
Social support networks can occur naturally or
can be created by commonality of circumstances. It
has been theorized that social support creates an
interpersonal environment that alleviates
accumulated stress that might overwhelm the
individual's ability to cope while also contributing to
the adaptive capacity of the individual. It has been
argued that the main effects of social support
influences health by way of the social network
(Cohen, 1991). When a SOS does not utilize a social
support network, the likelihood of experiencing
complicated grief symptoms is increased.
As part of the social support network, family
members and friends of the deceased may also
experience devastating psychological effects when a
death by suicide occurs. Affective, behavioral, and
cognitive changes may occur during the period of
bereavement. If they go untreated, the possibilities
for severe psychological changes increase. To
illustrate the experience of survivors following a
death by suicide, the theory of social impact can be
used. With this theory the affective, behavioral, and
cognitive changes in a person occur because of the
impact of an information source (e.g., a person, a
document, a movie, etc.) with respect to: the number
of others recommending the information; who gives
the information; the geographic closeness of the
person giving the information, and the strength of a
particular individual within the network. By building
new utilities and manipulating the available
functions, short text messages services (SMS), short
multi-media messages services (MMS), etc…, on
mobile phones and applying the social impact
theory, there is the potential to prevent a
bereavement-related crisis in survivors of suicide.
Communication establishes structure for society.
Methods of communication vary from hand signals,
to verbal exchanges, to reading the written word, or
viewing pictures. Mobile phones are a tool that
increases the ability to communicate with voice,
text, and images at any time and in any geographic
environment. Following the patterns of information
sharing in social networks, a SOS’s network will
have an inner-network of people in close proximity,
either geographically, physically, or emotionally,
and an outer-network of people, either geo-
graphically, physically, or emotionally. Each person
within the network may be conceptualized as being
an actor, playing a role within the support system.
The relationships established by the actors in the
network are built on the amount of time spent
communicating, the emotional intensity among the
actors, mutual confiding, and the offering of
reciprocal services. Figure 1 illustrates our proposed
model of a SOS’s social support network. Depicted
are the possible actors in the social support network.
The actors have been divided into two resource
groups, personal and clinical, revealing the role they
play within the social network and their role within
the support system (throughout the bereavement
process).
At this time, there is no published literature
defining a survivors’ of suicide social support
network, their communication patterns, or their
information needs. We propose that by using
COMPANION and providing appropriately tailored
information, it will be possible to enhance the
health-related quality of life (QOL) for survivors,
and inhibit severe psychological changes in
survivors of suicide as they live through the
bereavement process.
HEALTHINF 2009 - International Conference on Health Informatics
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