Online community offers lifeline for those facing illness and loss
Coping with illness, caregiving or loss can be deeply isolating, but Dartmouth Health’s ConnectShareCare platform offers a supportive online community to help people navigate these challenges. Since its launch in May 2021, the free platform has grown to over 400 members and continues to expand, with plans for additional groups focused on long-term illness management. Created by a collaborative team of patients, caregivers, health care professionals and researchers from The Dartmouth Institute, ConnectShareCare provides a safe space for sharing personal stories, accessing crisis resources and finding in-person events — all aimed at fostering connection and compassion.
“ConnectShareCare is not about providing medical advice and treatment recommendations,” said Sandra L. Knowlton-Soho, R.N., program manager of ConnectShareCare in the Dartmouth Health Office of Care Experience. “It is about people with lived experience talking to each other about their own frustrations or what has — or has not — worked for them. It’s about people being able to say, ‘I'm so glad to have found a group of people that make me feel like I'm not so alone.’”
Research supports the value of such online communities — such as ConnectShareCare’s “Active Caring” and “Grief and Loss” support groups — with reducing stress and improving mental health for caregivers and those grieving.