On-line with the friends of Bill W: Social support and the Net

The Internet is now being used as a mechanism for the delivery of social su pport on a global scale, chiefly through the formation of self-help groups. Most of the research that has been undertaken on these groups has focussed on Usenet and the use of newsgroups for social support. This paper examine s the use of an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) 'room', by a self-help group comp osed of problem drinkers. The group had an international membership and adv ocated the use of social support, rather than intervention by professional services, to help its membership overcome problem drinking. The paper consi ders the roles that these new forms of Internet mediated self-help and soci al support might play in changing the relationships of those who participat e in them towards traditional health and social care services. The paper al so critically examines the extent to which such fora might function as virt ual 'communities' of care.