I have tried several times to write down what I am thinking about how we, the Mumsnet readers, support people in their darkest hours. I still don?t think I have sorted out in my own mind exactly what it is that is niggling away at me but I do know that I have spent many hours reading different threads and the sadness of some of them and the compassion and good sense offered have made me cry more than once.
But I still don?t think we are quite getting it right.
To me there doesn?t always seem to be the link that I would have expected to see between the urgency of the cry for help and the number of postings in the thread. Sometimes the balance seems wrong so for example (using a made-up crisis here for obvious reasons) ?two little girls living next door were drowned in a local lake? although most unpleasant for the OP is not nearly as urgent as ?my two little girls were drowned in a local lake?.
One change I would make would be to have Bereavement as one of the chat topics that comes up automatically rather than hiding it away under the more ? sign. Perhaps swap PRS option with Bereavement??
I have also made a paper list of the threads where I think urgent support could make a real difference, perhaps even a life-or-death difference, and if I don?t see anything being posted for perhaps 24 hours I will show the OP that they are not forgotten by posting something myself. Other readers might care to do the same?