title: Participation in teleconference support groups: application to drug-using pregnant patients.
abstract: This paper describes our experience using telephone conference calls to conduct support groups for chemically-dependent women. Forty-seven women agreed to participate in regular, weekly support groups that were conducted by two chemical dependency counselors. Counselors attempted to conduct 59 support groups via a telephone conferencing system. Our data indicated that attendance at these sessions was poor. Seventeen sessions had no participants. No group sessions were attended by 4 or more women, and only 3 sessions (7.1%) included 3 participants. Very few clients made regular use of the support groups. Only 4 clients (8.5%) participated in more than 3 group sessions. Our findings suggest that teleconferencing may not be the most effective method for providing support services to chemically-dependent women.
authors.affiliation: Health Administration Program, Cleveland University, OH 44115, USA.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Alemi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Parren
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cavor
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Llorens
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mosavel
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006788:Hospitals, Voluntary; D006801:Humans; D009820:Ohio; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000523:psychology*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012657:Self-Help Groups / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000458:organization & administration*