what is the best way to keep a large community updated on a friends child who is ill?

[Anonymous]

Hi All. A friend of mine is caring for her 5 year old who has been in the hospital. Her and her husband are busy juggling the hospital coverage, taking care of their 2 other kids, etc.
I am trying to come up with a central place where interested friends and family can log on and get the latest updates. I am also looking for a system that will also allow me to send a sort of MASS email, to request help with meals, childcare, etc. There are many people who are offering to help, but need a way to organize all of it!

Facebook? Yahoo group?
Twitter? Blogspot?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Try caringbridge.org to give updates on the child.

[Anonymous]

Agree with caring bridge. It's great!

[Anonymous]

facebook is often used for this kind of thing. Caringbridge would require an extra login.

[Anonymous]

You could set up a basic, basic website and ask people to add it to their feed so they know when you do updates.

[Anonymous]

caring bridge is designed for this and I have followed several friends through illnesses. I have not used it as the person writing the updates, but note that for those accessing the updates, you can password protect or not, dependign on the level of privacy desired.

Also, there is a website lotsahelpinghands that tracks work tasks needed (provide dinner, pick up at hospital, child care for other child) and solicits volunteers. I've seen that used effectively for a large community to support a family in distress with multiple needs

[Anonymous]

lotsahelpinghands.com will help with the meal organization. great site and easy to use.

[Anonymous]

Our group of friends used this wiki page format which was very easy to set up and use for collaboration. A few of us administered it, but anyone could add messages, sign up for meals, etc.:

http://pbworks.com/

[Anonymous]

Lotsaheklpinghands.com is AMAZING. Two of my friends have sadly had reason to use it this year and it's been great to organize meals, dog-walking, baby sitting, news updates, well wishes, photos - everything. I love it. Good luck to you and your friends - you sound like a nice friend to want to help.

[Anonymous]

My friends and I used lotsahelpnghands for a friend undergoing chemo and it worked really well

[Anonymous]

OP here. Wow, there is a website for everything. I think we will also need a donations section for some much needed fundraising...I also came across care.com?
Anyone have experience with that one

[Anonymous]

caringbridge.

It's a combination of updates, the parents can do a journal, photos. It will notify those signed up when the parents have an update. It's for seriously ill children.

[Anonymous]

Caringbridge is wonderful. A journal for posting updates, notifications sent out when updates are posted, a guestbook for messages of support, and pages for photos.

To correct a PP, it does not require visitors to login unless the author sets it to do so. (Of course the author has to log in to post updates.) You can make it public, or you can require readers to login before they can access it. It is designed for exactly what you are talking about.

Carepages is the other site I'm familiar with and it works generally the same way as Caringbridge.

[Anonymous]

Facebook would be a solution. You can set up a separate account from your regular one and only invite those that you want to give updates to. If you don't have two e-mail accounts, set up a free one through g-mail. Another option is a blog through blogspot. com. You can also make it private and send out invitations to those that you want to update. I've seen caring bridge used once, so I can't compare them with these options. I'm sorry for your friend.

[Anonymous]

OP, this might be a dumb question. The sick kids family knows about this, right? Make sure everything is cleared with them for privacy reasons.

You may be a concerned friend, but they might not want their business out there for their own reasons. Since they are the ones closest to the illness, it is their decision, not yours.

That said, they are lucky to have you as long as you respect their wishes. Been there, done that.