Okay, this is part two. A bit of info about the Help Centre for those members who don't know much about us. SANE has had a 1800 line to provide information, support and referrals for 30 years now. It's evolved into a small team of mental health professionals - meaning someone who has a minimum qualification of an undergraduate degree in psychology, social work or counselling with most working towards higher qualifications. We work across the phone, email and web chat to support people living with a mental illness and their carers.
Forum members are very welcome to access those services to help manage their mental health concerns and a number of you do. It's useful to be aware that we don't use those channels to manage forum issues - like any problems with technology, notifications etc. We assist with those via email at team@saneforums.org.
Until early September we were only open from 9am to 5pm AEST/AEDT Which was highly problematic for help-seekers on the west coast and anyone with a job. We're really delighted to have been able to open longer hours. Pheonix Rising is right that SANE strongly values the consumer advocate role and uses it in a variety of ways, principally in the development of new programs and materials. Apart from being informed by the lived experience that exists across our organisation, there was no additional consultation in the extension of hours because it was simply that. The same service model available for longer hours and to more people.
The leadership team within the Help Centre are all trained in trauma informed practice and it's a framework that has growing impact across the organisation. The new incoming Help Centre Counsellors also had a session on it in their initial training. It's an awareness and practice that deepens over time and it's an ongoing part of our internal conversations.
Back the forums, it's best to use @Former-Member to alert someone that help is needed now. When you tag specific moderators you won't know when a response can be expected. The conversation about notifiying you about the mods on at any given time is not one I can address. That needs to wait for NikNik to return.
The key dilemma for us with regards to last Thursday night, which we've explained via phone and email to Pheonix Rising, is that the moderator needed to liaise with the Content team in order to have the facebook post removed. This involved a face to face chat with the head of the department to explain the issue and then a phone call to the social media manager to act on the decision. This took time away from the forums to resolve and resulted in some of you feeling unsupported.
We take your safety very seriously and so this outcome is one we deeply regret. The reality for us at times is that we need to choose between two courses of action and it felt at the time that it was essential to get the facebook post removed in order to limit further damage. If anything similar arises again, the team know that they can reach out to management for some assistance.
As I'm not part of the current forum management team - just the most senior person around to acknowledge your concerns right now - I can't make any promises about longer-term changes at this point. But you have been heard, and will continue to be listened to, and conversation will continue once the management team are back. In the meantime, we'll keep our focus on the @Former-Member inbox and respond as quickly as we can.
I've off for the day but I'll be in tomorrow. I hope you all have a good night 🙂
