Moving up the Mental Health Hub

[Mr Keshy]

This does seem like a rather minor thing, perhaps too minor haha.

But I think the Mental Health Hub should be moved higher up on the main page. The reason for this is that I think that more people will recognise it, more often. I think that's a positive thing

As I said, it's a rather small thing to worry about, but given it's importance, I believe it's warranted

Am I alone on this?

[Professor Polonsky]

My suggestion would perhaps be to collapse the interstate (HSC, SACE and WACE) by default (if that is possible), as they are seldom used and take up a fair bit of space. I think the mental hub's current position in the boards is logical.

[ninwa]

You can collapse boards yourself just click the little minus button at the top right hand corner of each subforum.

The status of the Mental Health Hub is currently in a bit of a limbo unfortunately, which is why I haven't responded to this suggestion yet (my apologies). I spoke to a lawyer who said that because none of us are trained professionals, we could be opening ourselves up to legal issues. Options right now include 1) doing a partnership with a mental health organisation 2) changing the name of the hub so it's not overtly "mental health" related 3) scrapping it altogether.

[slothpomba]

You can collapse boards yourself just click the little minus button at the top right hand corner of each subforum.

The status of the Mental Health Hub is currently in a bit of a limbo unfortunately, which is why I haven't responded to this suggestion yet (my apologies). I spoke to a lawyer who said that because none of us are trained professionals, we could be opening ourselves up to legal issues. Options right now include 1) doing a partnership with a mental health organisation 2) changing the name of the hub so it's not overtly "mental health" related 3) scrapping it altogether.

Not to be Mr. Negativity or anything but i think we're of dubious ability and education to help anyone who has any kind of serious underlying problem. I worry quite a bit about the fact that people might start handing out amateur diagnoses ("well...you sound depressed") which could do a lot of harm. If someone has any kind of legitimate mental illness, we'll do almost nothing in the way of treating it. We might make them feel better for a little but its just masking it because, in this case, professional treatment is needed to actually resolve anything. I almost worry if we end up masking it or start helping out many people constantly that might reduce the impetus for them to go to a doctor and actually resolve it. We wouldn't attempt to treat diabetes as a forum community, it's not much different here because its in someones head. We can talk all we want but for people who are actually ill, most won't get better unless they get medication and/or counseling.  The idea of a "mental health hub" almost implies we're treating people or we're even able to offer much more beyond a chat.

That said, i'm sure we can help a fair bit for people with everyday problems and who just feel sad (not clinically depressed, even though in some peoples minds that line is getting blurry) or frustrated with a situation. Maybe we should just rename it to something like "Advice board" or something like that, it would certainly change expectations, even if the nature of the board is still roughly the same.

[Russ]

A couple of us had similar concerns which is why we're working out what to do with it atm

[thushan]

King - Nina and I were discussing this the other day; we're thinking about either 1) getting professionals to watch the hub or 2) renaming it.

[slothpomba]

King - Nina and I were discussing this the other day; we're thinking about either 1) getting professionals to watch the hub or 2) renaming it.

Seems like it might be a bit of a hard slog though. I mean you need to essentially find someone willing to do it for free (doubt it'll be an individual, if it is, i'm no lawyer but then there might be liability issues) or a person (people) from an organisation. As far as i know though, a lot of public services are already stretched pretty thin and stuff. It'll be pretty hard to convince them to divert man power from their own projects to one of ours. It would be a decent thing if we could get that but a lot of schools already have psychologists and there already exists many services for this exact purpose (external to this site, headspace, etc) that we can refer people to.

I think if we do get someone, to offer any kind of actual long term help to certain individuals would be a huge undertaking as well and they'd probably want to establish a face to face clinical relationship. It looks like we've come full circle again to something that can easily be achieved outside of AN.

Sorry if it comes off a big negative but i dont see much reason for diverting resources away from external organisations to our site when we can just refer people to them. Unless theres some extra benefit i'm missing of having it happen here and not referring them on.

[thushan]

Seems like it might be a bit of a hard slog though. I mean you need to essentially find someone willing to do it for free (doubt it'll be an individual, if it is, i'm no lawyer but then there might be liability issues) or a person (people) from an organisation. As far as i know though, a lot of public services are already stretched pretty thin and stuff. It'll be pretty hard to convince them to divert man power from their own projects to one of ours. It would be a decent thing if we could get that but a lot of schools already have psychologists and there already exists many services for this exact purpose (external to this site, headspace, etc) that we can refer people to.

I think if we do get someone, to offer any kind of actual long term help to certain individuals would be a huge undertaking as well and they'd probably want to establish a face to face clinical relationship. It looks like we've come full circle again to something that can easily be achieved outside of AN.

Sorry if it comes off a big negative but i dont see much reason for diverting resources away from external organisations to our site when we can just refer people to them. Unless theres some extra benefit i'm missing of having it happen here and not referring them on.

We are not psychologists and don't give mental health advice, nor do we pretend to be. We are merely a support network...much like the following:

https://blueboard.anu.edu.au/

We have a similar role to this forum (with the possible difference that ANU has much better access to lawyers).

Plus...what of those people who have no support nor any means to access professional help (like "Sad and Depressed")? Our role is not "health care professional," it is merely "carer" for these people. We are simply friends, not professionals. Professionals can't be around all the time...our role is to give people who are going through the doldrums one thing - love. That's one thing professionals cannot give.

[Mr Keshy]

Thanks Nina Did not know that!


I think the main argument here is that no one can control what anyone says, and in this particular scenario, it has the potential to cause real harm.

However, I do believe that the difference between people here and professions is pretty much what Thush said. We shouldn't be assessing their situation, rather support them and care for them

[Russ]

The problem is that the delineation between "help and support" and "advice" is basically non existent, especially when a) it's anonymous on the internet and b) lawyers

[thushan]

The problem is that the delineation between "help and support" and "advice" is basically non existent, especially when a) it's anonymous on the internet and b) lawyers

Reckon...? Hmm. So does that mean that a real-life carer (such as a friend) can potentially be sued? If not...what's the difference? If anonymity is an issue, how about we make it convention that only the OP can remain anonymous whereas others may not be - although there is a slightly increased chance that one may lose some degree of anonymity. As for lawyers...see the first sentence.

[DavidB3ck]

Unless we're partnered with people trained to deal with these kinds of problems we shouldn't be promoting ourselves with the ability to do so at all... For legal reasons, and because we don't want to preclude, in any way, people from getting real help. We can rename the board to something completely ambiguous, like "Anonymous Rant Board", etc, and not claim to be offering anything. A list of resources and help lines and a board with anonymity shouldn't be too illegal. I don't think we should scrap it entirely. Having dealt with depression myself, having a place to be able to rant without judgment, talk to people with similar issues, or just feel a little less lonely can, sometimes literally, be a lifesaver.

[thushan]

However, having dealt with depression myself, a place to be able to rant without judgment, talk to people with similar issues, or just feel a little less lonely can, sometimes literally, be a lifesaver.

AMEN!

[ninwa]

I agree, which is why I'm so reluctant to get rid of it altogether. In the first week I can see it's already helped a fair few people.

According to the lawyer I spoke to, the fact that we are primarily an educational website (i.e. we don't pretend to be focused on mental issues), and the fact that I put up that disclaimer, would all contribute to us having a good case. However, all it takes is one person to commit suicide after posting here and bam, you have a grieving family looking for someone to blame. Even if we had a good case, AN really does not have the resources to fund a legal action so all we can do is avoid it in the first place.

Any suggestions for what to rename it to? I like the "anonymous rant hub" idea.

[Mr Keshy]

Any suggestions for what to rename it to? I like the "anonymous rant hub" idea.

Sounds good