A question with the best of intentions about the guidelines yet again.

Over to you @Former-Member I'm not the one to interpret the guidelines or explain why they are what they are, sorry @Eden1919

@eth sorry i didnt mean to ask you personally to explain the guidlines I just meant for peoples general opinions experiences i should have clarified

Another thing that makes this forum off-putting for me, in addition to all of what @Eden1919 mentioned, is that the mods are dismissive in the language they use to approach this situation, and they use "the guidelines were created in consult with the community" as an excuse to justify their dismissiveness and this type of silence. I agree, it is like constantly having to walk on eggshells and like there is a lot of cover up for services etc going on that is justified by the people behind the scenes.

All I have to ask, is have those higher ups in SANE actually used the mental health system before? Have they actually seen what goes on firsthand? Have they been there when patients and clients are treated like dirt? I doubt it, because the approach says otherwise. I think that needs to be considered when deciding if they have the right to censor actual lived experience and treat those of us with it like we have to walk on eggshells. We already are just to avoid being treated like criminals or shit otherwise. Don't need more of it.

Hey there @Eden1919 thanks so much for this question, and we definitely empathise and understand it can be a bit tricky to get one's head around. I think a lot of your posting is really positive, you tend to use a lot of "My experience of xyz was not a positive one" and that's really paramount, always coming back to your own experience. Because you're right, there's work to be done in the sector, there are many people who feel disempowered by the way the services are run.

It gets tricky however when we say things like "I personally can't stand X organisation". That is a post we would allow initially, but if it is repetitive - then it needs to be removed (for a mod they would be looking for more than three repetitions of this criticism in a tight time frame). It's really important people don't feel afraid to access services, but it's also important people feel they can speak about their negative experience of the sector - so for both mods and staff it is probably one of the more challenging guidelines to navigate. I would definitely encourage you to email us if you like, and we can help work you through examples, but overall I think you do well to post from your own personal lens which is much appreciated 🙂 Currently as I type this, there are 20 members online and 400 guests. Those people are reading over many of the threads, some may be considering reaching out for help for the first time - it's just so important they feel they can have that opportunity. I know in my own experience, reaching out to a helpline for the first time was really paramount in recovery, but I also acknowledge not everyone has had the same opportunity perhaps due to an unhelpful counsellor on the other end of the line :(.

@Former-Member Thanks for your insight and feedback. We would encourage you to email us directly if you would like, we can also provide you more formal feedback channels for our service. Yes there are members of SANE's staff who have lived experience of complex mental health, in addition of course are our peer ambassadors and forum volunteers. I can assure you this community and org strives to ensure those affected by complex mental health feel supported, we do however, need to have policies and protocols that align with national requirements regarding duty of care to make sure all community members are safe. We understand it can be hard at times, please feel free to get in touch via team@saneforums.org and we can help you out further with this issue.

Thanks heaps @eth @Eden1919 @Former-Member

We're all adults here, why are we treated like hopeless babies with no ability to make decisions about what we do and don't read on the forums?

@Eden1919 Hey Eden1919 I totally and utterly agree with you 100% with everything you have said. peax