Safety and Crisis Support

I would love to see a private chat function for moderators to connect with those that need that extra support. Sometimes when we see members 'in crisis', it can be so draining for other members. We want to support but also know they need more than we can provide. Having those discussions taken off the forums and into a private space would lessen the frustrations we have by both not being able to support and also the times when the poster does not seem to be able to get any help from either the mods or members (or both). Sometimes this deteriortates quickly into SI or them not being able to keep themself safe - and that adds to the worry of members. We do know there is only so much we can do to support those members but it does often have a detrimental effect on us seeing that. If we know that member is being conversed with privately then it takes away that potential for it to escalate quickly on the forums.

Not sure if this is the right section to be discussing this, but I'd love to see a better system for helping people solve their problems, or directing them to them to the correct people who can solve their problems.

As an example: a few years ago I got struck with a Robodebt-like situation: a bizarre letter from the government demanding a large some of money from me. This was several years after the actual Robodebt program had folded up, and had been recognized as the cause of some suicides. So I just assumed that resolving problems like this must've since been woven in to the national suicide prevention strategy, and that a suicide prevention organization like SANE would know exactly what to do about it.

But when I came on here to ask about my options, I was essentially told that I was on my own.

I don't know what would happen if that situation were to repeat itself today - particularly considdering that we've since had the Robodebt Royal Inquiry. Maybe today, the SANE forums would be able to give me precise, clear directions as to how to get this sort of beaurocratic error cleared up. Considdering that these sort of letters are now widely recognized as a cause of suicide, one would hope that there are strategies to resolve them in place now; especially in suicide-prevention environments such as the SANE forums.

@chibam I feel as though having the ability to DM members off the public forum could be a good way to help with some of those issues as mods/PSWs could help with further links if they have them. I would also like to see a 'questions' box or thread specifically for the kinds of things you mentioned. Whilst the scope of the forums may prevent mods/PSWs from being able to answer all such questions,

@RachSANECEO Having a mod/PSW who could privately DM a member would streamline the process for supporting someone in crisis. I would not see this as an ongoing communication (over weeks) but a way to assess risk and refer to crisis services. Sometimes, that initial contact can be all that is needed. There of course needs to be a limit - and if the same members are presenting with the same issues over an extended period of time (ie. days) then it would be a good way to 'take' that off the forums and for that member to be supported in seeking help from other services who are more equipped to help.

I don't see a need for new members to have an extended connection but maybe a hello, welcome and tips to get started.

Thanks @Zoe7 and @chibam in the platform configuration upgrade we have been looking at behind the scenes we have so far brainstormed the potential for mods to activate chat to member when someone is in crisis, and we are thinking about a nominal one or two week period, so its there for a bit to help and then disappears again, we don't want the forums to become lots of private chats.

We are also conceptually designing a different sort of space that could be a closed group hub like this one, but for individual members to have a space for them, that a given peer or mod could interact with but it would give people a sort of quiet space that belongs to them, where they could post in a way that still isn't private in that it would be visible to mods, but they could sort of journal about some of the stuff that can be a bit overwhelming if posted in the open space.

A bit like a mix of a journal, some peer support from a particular mod, or all the mods and ability for people for whom the forum space and functionality is really powerful, to be able to post in more depth or detail than they can in the main areas. Like having your own, quieter space to retreat to as needed.

while I am here, a silly question - can everyone edit their own posts? is that a function available to anyone? feel free to jump in here SANE Team if you can help me with the answer.

Hi @RachSANECEO I like both those ideas a lot ...but I have a couple of concerns.

1. would be over-reliance on one-to-one chats so the boundaries would need to be explicitly in place from the beginning. I absolutely could see that there could be a lot of private chats going on so it would have to be made clear to the community this is still a peer-to-peer forum and that these private chats are for crisis situations and not for extra support - that needs to be undertaken with the member's offline supports.

2. My other concern is that sometimes mods/PSWs do not even reply to tags on the forum - and even worse, when they have replied to a member, that member then replies back, and no further reply is forthcoming. They also often 'miss' some of those members who appear to be in crisis. What processes will be in place to make sure these things are not missed?

On the positive side:

1. Private chats could happen to take some of the triggering and ongoing 'distress' posts off the forum.

2. The idea of a private space (such as with this hub) for members is a wonderful idea. That would (hopefully) alleviate some of the above mentioned issues. My question here is: would these private spaces be open to 'friends' of the member ie. could they be set up to have one or more members also interact in that space? For the forums to continue to work, we need to emphasise the peer-to-peer nature of them and in that respect having a other members have 'access' to that private thread would be ideal. I would also need to know how mods/PSWs are going to be 'tasked' with interacting in those spaces. There is currently so much inequity around their interactions with members on the forum and if this was also to be the case in a 'private' space then that would leave a member totally alone.