Why?!

[BlancheM]

Why don't you allow threads full of support and empathy? Why take away someone's lifeline when it was the only safe place they felt they could talk? What harm was there in it?

I think it's clear which thread I was referring to: a young mum desperate for help because she feels like a failure. Cue everyone trying to tell her she will be ok/how to get support/relating stories and then, 'we don't allow threads like this.' Talk about tipping someone over the edge :(

HQ have a policy in line with Samaritans advice. They will point OP to RL services and delete.

Please tell me you don't really think MN is a 'safe space'. It is not.

It's not for me to judge what feels like a safe space to someone in circumstances unknown. It clearly seemed like the only place that OP could honestly say how she felt. And she received advice- good advice and most importantly, solidarity. It could've been useful both now and to read back over at a later date.

The policy needs a rethink. I don't know what advice the samaritans offer online in regards to signposting to other organisations but we all know the helpline is a listening service, they can't give advice.
Why can we talk about mental health freely in retrospect but not at the time when it's actually crucial to a person's life? The number 1 piece of advice promulgated by mental health charities is to talk. That's a brave step, to talk. It shouldn't be shut down with a 'we don't allow threads like this'.

MNHQ have made it very clear why threads like this are pulled.

They deliberately do not get into discussions about it.

They take advice from the Samaritans

Just because a thread is pulled do not assume MN think it's all over, and not their problem

I think MNHQ are being very responsible

I think MNHQ are being very responsible

On this I do too.

Oh well, it wasn't made very clear this time. There was nothing triggering on that thread, either.

The policy needs a rethink.

You know better than mental health professionals and charities?

I can't see how pulling someone's call for help out of their clutches after they've taken that brave and probably only step, is helpful to the person posting, no.
Go and be a smart arse somewhere else, please. I only asked out of genuine concern and I have experience in what happens when someone doesn't feel able to reach out, anywhere for advice.
It needs a rethink.

I can't see how pulling someone's call for help out of their clutches after they've taken that brave and probably only step, is helpful to the person posting, no.

Do you think MNHQ made that decision on their own out of spite? This is on the advice of mental health professionals and charities.

Unfortunately, well meaning mumsnetters aren’t qualified to deal with actively suicidal posters and may well inadvertently make things worse. The number one thing someone in that situation needs is real life help and threads on here can get in the way of that.

But you don't know what MNHQ have done with regards to the woman.

And there is a very good reason they don't give answers to questions like yours

I agree that it seems harsh, but it’s for very good reasons. It shouldn’t be changed.

You clearly weren't on this thread in particular. It was full of posts encouraging her to get help, in different ways, in real life. They were reassuring her that she was ok to seek that real life help.

I was on that thread.

If anything, my question to Mumsnet HQ would be to explain why they edited out the suicide plan instead of deleting the thread straight away as they usually do. I wonder if it was a new mod.

They don’t have to explain. They’ve sought expert advice here. It’s too inportant an issue to leave it to chance that kind mumsnetters are around and not trolls egging someone on to hurt themselves.

All it could take is one nasty comment from a poster and that person could be pushed over the edge.
People in crisis need professional help.

Budgie what's with all the cloak and daggers?
How is the policy clear if MN don't engage with questions like mine?
If there's a good reason, what is it?
Why are you commenting if you can't say anything about it?

There should be no need for secrecy around mental health. If something was triggering then I would understand but that would be perceived as a terrible rejection by a suicidal person.

All it could take is one nasty comment from a poster and that person could be pushed over the edge.

It’s sometimes not even nasty posts. The “think of your children who love and need you” ones can be just as harmful.

How is the policy clear if MN don't engage with questions like mine?

They do.

There have befm many threads like this after a suicide thread goes.

So the threads could be moderated.

If something was triggering then I would understand but that would be perceived as a terrible rejection by a suicidal person.

And yet that’s exactly what’s recommended by experts in mental health.

Which experts?

So the threads could be moderated.

Not possible. It would require expert moderators available to respond 24hrs a day.

So it's impossible to close a thread and stop comments after a certain time? I don't think so.