Earlier this year, we had some fun via a Lifehacker post about the Do-It-Yourself movement and where that fits into health. Courtesy of that great blog, here’s another intriguing idea worth considering in the health digital space: DDIY, or “Don’t Do It Yourself.”

The concept of DDIY has little to do with avoiding something you can’t do alone. Instead, it’s about finding places where a little assistance can get you to a certain personal goal or creation after you hit an impasse that you can’t overcome yourself. Part motivation, part crowdsourcing, when it comes to personal health, there are many places that resources from others can play the part you need to get you past your obstacle. In today’s Check-Up, we take a look at a few places to help you so you don’t have to start from scratch when it comes to health.

Healthy Together

One of the suggestions from the Lifehacker post about DDIY was looking into online forums and answer services that may help you connect the dots on your goal. When it comes to health, there is no shortage of these. Offline, there are no shortage of groups at gyms or local community centers dedicated to healthy living; online portals like Healthy Together try to gather that same information to help people get, well, healthy together.

Aardvark

Another interesting example from Lifehacker is definitely something worth investigating as it applies to specific health conditions or even information you can help supply. Aardvark is a digitally based question-and-answer service, hooking up community members who have certain knowledge bases and connecting them with the people who have questions in those fields. Flipping through the topics, there is a deep well of experts on aspects of health that include things like fitness, technologies or even hospitals.

Wellsphere

While another community/forum driven site like Healthy Together, there is one other reason to point to Wellsphere’s resources and how it offers up information. Looking at the community breakdown, there are two clear areas: “healthy living” and just “health.” This probably is a good way to think about the places where people have the ability to do things themselves or realize that they need information or help from others before going on their way.

DIY vs DDIY

I think most people could easily guess the times when not to do something concerning their health on their own or through the help of an online community. Crowdsourcing a physical shouldn’t be high on your list, but in terms of looking for support for personal fitness goals or health and wellness, there are certainly places you can go so you don’t have to go it alone. The additional question for communicators is how to work with these groups – both as a beneficiary and as a resource – to help people who do want to do it themselves.

Image credit: wenzday01