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Bridging between people who write and people who talk

SFJContributor18 Sept 2026, 12:24 pm AEST

Bridging between people who write and people who talk

Its difficult, in an age where there are so many ways to communicate,

You can wait on the phone for hours or wait on a web forum like this for days.

Quite a deep division between one generation and the next.

The old? 330 different web sites https://www.suicidepreventionaust.org/our-ambition/, each offering a phone number to each org's volunteers, where the well-intentioned give their advice and commiserations for (say) an hour, in attempts to provide an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.

The new? Driven by social (media) orgs that, because they take an adversarial approach on every issue in order to retain eyeballs and revenue, create fear an loathing between already nervous gentlemen and gentlewomen.

A shared forum, between 330 orgs (web sites) who share the same concerns for their common community members, would seem an efficient way of utilising the technology in order to share the hard times between some very beautiful people.

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In response to: Bridging between people who write and people who talk

eldermillenialContributor21 Sept 2026, 12:51 am AEST

Re: Bridging between people who write and people who talk

Hi @simonfj

You’ve hit on a very real challenge here. Navigating support across hundreds of disconnected services and hotlines can feel completely overwhelming, especially when someone is already in crisis or reaching capacity.

The contrast between the slow, asynchronous nature of forums and the immediate demand (or long wait times) of phone lines is stark. At the same time, the fast-paced, algorithmic nature of typical social media often amplifies distress rather than offering safety. A consolidated, genuinely safe community space where people can connect across these silos—without the noise and conflict of commercial platforms—makes a lot of sense.

I've got some ideas but I'd love to know your vision of what a shared forum (platform?) might look like to you... dream big!

EM.

In response to: Bridging between people who write and people who talk

SFJContributor23 Sept 2026, 7:56 am AEST

Re: Bridging between people who write and people who talk

Hi and thanks EM,

It's not that really a big deal. The challenge is that we have two cultures to overcome.

The first is just a technical thing. and we can se it's start by comparing:

!, the lifeline website (talk/chat only) https://www.lifeline.org.au/131114 and

2, these forums (more in-depth write only). https://saneforums.org

Somewhere, buried on the lifeline site, ( I can't find it anymore), there's a link TO this page https://lifeline.saneforums.org/messages/ , and when one Registers/Log On there, they sign up with sane (an entirely different org) and leave their personal details on sane's database).

Its a pretty easy/cheap technical thing to get suicidepreventionaust to ask their members if they want to share the sane's forums, off theor websites, and ask lifeline to put a link (top right) on their front page to the forums for people who prefer writing.

Now comes the harder cultural change, and I have to be a sexist here. I can never apologise to female counsellors for having such a limited understanding of human nature, although Mensonline makes my common stupidity clear, "... men are often more focused on solutions than talking about their feelings". https://mensline.org.au/about-us/

So this is where i started https://lifeline.saneforums.org/messages/1908169

But it seems this is not an acceptable approach in a world where every public service must be "delivered", never "co-designed".

In response to: Bridging between people who write and people who talk

SFJContributor17 Oct 2026, 8:12 am AEDT

Re: Bridging between people who write and people who talk

Hey @eldermillenial

Just popping in and out.

I should have said "we have two cultures to bridge"(not overcome).

Gotta say, I lost any confidence in Aussieland about a decade ago. It feels like a culture that hasn't moved on much from convict days.

The "co-create" (together) rather than "deliver" (separately) is so much easier to be on a journey with in Europe. I'm just too old for junior school. (but still do understand what it is to be young and arrogant. I was)

If you want some fun. Here's where things are up to with the young techs inventing the next protocol after http. https://news.atmosphereconf.org/3mxwz3moqfc2m

If its new to you, it'll be a big jump. But the enthusiasm will remove you from Aussie "delivery system".

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