Moderation and Guidelines

Unfortunately this is not going to be a positive post.

Moderation:

I find there is a very big gap in regards to moderation on the forums. What is 'accepted' by one member is often not by another. This is particularly in relation to newer members as opposed to longer term members. Sometimes when a newer member appears 'in crisis' they are instantly directed to other services, whereas this is not always the case with longer term

members. I do understand that mods, PSWs, etc. may 'know' this member more but it should not matter - the same processes should be applied to everyone. This often leads to a lengthy conversation with longer term members where they are continually in 'distress' and that becomes draining on everyone. Alternatively, some other members are directed to get in touch with their supports or immediately sent an email to check in - whilst this is necessary, it should be done equitable across the board for ALL members in the same/similar situation.

There are often breaches of guidelines missed by mods/PSWs who are ingaging in longer cnversations on threads. I understand the 'human' side to these conversations but they also need to be completely across the guidelines and to identify breaches before replying to a post firstly then secondly continuing that connection.

Consistency is a big issue. Some threads/posts have many mods/PSWs responding, whilst others are left with no response.

Guidelines:

The Community Guidelines need updating and a complete restructuring. The set out is not easy to navigate and there is A LOT of information within in each section. Dot points and sub-headings are great but a whole lot of text to read is not easy - especially when someone is coming to the forums for support and may not be in the frame of mind to 'take much in'. I would like to see a drop-down box as you hover over each sub-section which gives an abridged, plain language version of the guideline. That way a member can then click on the specific section they are wanted to know more about and/or need to know about.

The present guidelines do not show the present structure of the forums in regards to membership (ie. Peer Guides, PSWs, etc.) are not in the guidelines and some descriptions are out of date (ie. Community Guides are not always 'longer term members').

In relation to moderation, I feel that while there is a lot of support between 9am and 10 pm. During the hours outside of that there really isn’t much. When someone is in crisis they step in, but during those hrs is when a lot of people struggle and may just need a quick chat to get them through the next few minutes.

Also I find that the peer support workers have their certain threads that they respond to. Also when someone posts when they are in a ok place there seems to not be much communication. I realise those that are struggling need it more but also those that are coping for the moment sometimes need support too, to stay in that place.

Guidelines is a hard one. Sometimes it feels like we are being silenced over issues. I do get that they could be triggering for other members and people don’t always follow the suggestions of T/W. But there is some issues that need support which is not available. Also I find that the guidelines are really well communicated and it seems that some members are able to post certain things and others aren’t. I find that it can be one rule for some and another rule for others.

Agree @Captain24 It is often those 'outside hours' when a simple reply is all that is needed to not feel alone - and often those times it is just you and a moderator actually on line.

As with regards to PSWs, etc. and sticking to certain threads - agree also. I understand everyone has their own areas of interest and experiences to fall back on but a more equitable and consistent approach is needed - especially in regards to acknowledging a post/member who does not seem to be having any response at all. That can escalate a simple post to one of feeling even more alone.

I have to say that I’m lucky in regards to 2 PSW who are a great support to me @Zoe7 but they obviously aren’t always online and have very limited online hours. Outside of their hours I feel pretty forgotten.

Very much hearing you @Captain24 You are indeed fortunate to have those 2 in your corner when they are online ...quite the opposite for some other members unfortunately - and that makes me sad because everyone deserves support.

I think that moderation has definitely improved over the years. But I still think that there's a noticeable lingering bias against victims of the mental health system who mention the harms they've suffered. It's still really common for a mod to quickly jump onto such a post with a PSA to the rest of the world about how there are a lot of good therapists in the industry; essentially trying to drown out and/or water down the original poster's statement.

I know that at least several people who have had these responses have found it quite hurtful. It cuts especially deep if you haven't spoken out much about what you've been through.

People who've been victimized by therapists seem to be cropping up more and more, and the phenomenon as a whole is getting increasing recognition. I think the strategy of trying to soften statements about harmful therapy has become obsolete, TBH. The cat's out of the bag. I think maybe it's time to just acknowledge that these problems are widespread and of concern, or for moderation to just leave the conversations be, altogether.

I can't say I've ever encountered a therapy-critical post that was so absolute to say: "All therapists are a bunch of &*#@*!", but to read some of the moderator responses to such posts, you'd think they were making such a massive over-generalization. The vast majority of therapy victims I've encountered are aware that there are some good therapists around. Just because they don't choose to dwell on this fact in their posts doesn't mean that they deny it; nor that their criticism of specific victimizers they've encountered ought to be construed as hate-speech against an entire workforce. Yet some users seem to perceive such posts this way. Likewise, criticizing some of the systematic problems of the overall mental health system does not equate to an attack on each and every therapist.

I know that there are many users on this forum who are very appreciative of the mental health system, and their own personal therapists, and posts that are critical of the system or therapists upset them. So I get why this can be a contentious issue. But the problem is still out there, and there are people who really want to talk about it; because the more difficult the system makes it for you to talk about it; the less likely it seems that the problems will ever get fixed.

So maybe we need a dedicated corner of the forums where people can be open about the ugliness of the system, without any risk of offending fans of the system, as they will (ideally) be well aware that that area will be offensive to them?

I also have some feelings regarding the forums' stance on suicide, but I think I'll wait and see what comes out of the discussion tomorrow evening about talking about suicide before I delve into that.

---

@RachSANECEO wrote:
If there was a space to talk about harm from treatment and how people have coped with/made sense of that how do you think it could work? would it be a closed group with some clear guides? would people need to be members for a while to access it? interested in some design thinking here.. it could also be a space where we co-design some learnings to help change the system - e.g. what should be done to improve services/systems/training etc? Look forward to your reply.

---

I think it would need to be fairly open; for example, your idea about membership only being available after people have been members for a while seems problematic, IMHO. I've struck several brand new members on her who, pretty much right from the get-go, want to talk about their suffering at the hands of their therapist, or who want to get some outside opinions on the dodgy-sounding conduct of their currant therapist.

For a forum that supposedly exists to give people a place to talk about their problems, it'd be a bit ironic if it imposed a big wait period on their ability to talk about their most pressing problems. I mean, you know how it goes. Sometimes a person in crisis needs to talk 'right now', and if what they need to talk about is the anguish of their terrible therapy...

I think that factoring in an aspiration to learn from these unfortunate stories - to see them as lessons on how to improve the system - is an excellant idea. TBH, I think that the reason that a lot of us do talk about this stuff is because we hope that, sooner or later, somebody in a position of power will actually hear us, and finally fix the problem.

---

@RachSANECEO wrote:
thanks for this post @chibam. you are correct that the moderation guidelines as currently written essentially say that mods should intervene in case new members see posts saying people have been harmed through their experience seeking treatment and that results in a reduced likelihood for others to seek help.

---

What I think you need to appreciate (maybe you already do) is that is not entirely accidental. When you've lived through a therapy nightmare, such as I have, you dearly dearly wish that you could send a message back through time and warn yourself not to go into therapy. You dearly dearly wish that someone had warned you just how bad it can be, instead of universally marketing therapy as being the answer to all woes.

Now, here we are, armed with this valuable knowledge; this capability to spare other naieve young souls from the torment we needlessly went though - and we're forbidden from using it? We're forbidden from giving them the same fair warning we so dearly wanted for ourselves? I hope you can understand how uneasily that sits with us; how immoral it feels.

We all know and try to abide by SANE's pro-therapy stance on these matters. After all, we are the guests here, no the hosts. When in Rome. But it's a code of conduct that is at odds with what feels right and wrong in our own hearts.

Maybe there's no easy solution to that conflict, but I think it at least deserves acknowledging and perhaps a bit of reflection.