Mental Health topic

[BipolarWhypolarTrypolar]

A quick look through the mental health topic shows dozens of people posting every day for support and their threads are largely going unanswered.

There’s got to be a better way to deal with these due to the subject matter. Maybe volunteer supporters whose job is to ensure MH threads don’t just get ignored? Just posting the MH resources or a bunch of flowers might make people feel seen. Or maybe just do away with that topic so people are allowed to post somewhere with traffic.

I don’t think it helps people posting in desperation to be unheard.

And fwiw I’d volunteer for this when I am feeling less ill.

Or paid and trained peer supporters? I don't think people should volunteer to do this - you may as well start now I guess. But it would be amazing to have a paid role for someone/some people to do.

Hello @BipolarWhypolarTrypolar thanks for your suggestion. We certainly don't want people in need of support to find their threads unanswered. With regards to volunteer supporters - we'd have concerns that it would be a lot to put on someone especially when it's a situation where a poster is clearly in need of urgent medical attention. Clearly there are things we can do to help and so we'll discuss the points you've raised here and will report back.

I see the OP’s point but I’m not sure creating a role (volunteer or paid) for someone to specifically answer those threads is the right response. As noted, it puts a lot on a volunteer to be expected to support people posting with mental health difficulties and in both paid or volunteer cases, where do you draw the line? It’s not reasonable to expect MN to provide MH support to posters with no knowledge of their history.

What might help is a standard response signposting different MH services who the poster can contact expressed in appropriate wording.

I also don’t think getting rid of the MH topic so people with potentially severe mental health problems can post elsewhere (let’s face it, it will end up in AIBU, ‘for traffic’) is a good idea, given the robust nature of AIBU.

What might help is a standard response signposting different MH services who the poster can contact expressed in appropriate wording.

This is more of what I was thinking but with personalisation and appropriate signposting - the Samaritans isn't always the best place for example if you want advice on your child's eating disorder.

What might help is a standard response signposting different MH services who the poster can contact expressed in appropriate wording.

Yes that's the sort of thing I meant when I said "Just posting the MH resources or a bunch of flowers might make people feel seen." I absolutely wasn't suggesting MN bring in supporters with Samaritans-level training on a regular schedule (although in fairness, they're volunteers, too).

I was thinking maybe someone (or several someones) to check for new posts in the topic and say, "I'm sorry you're feeling that way, here are some resources, I am here and listening, say what you need to say."

I know threads flagged to MNHQ get a post with resources, but so many don't get flagged, and I just thought MNHQ probably don't have time to go through them all. Sorry, I don't really have an ideal solution, but it makes me sad to see so many people alone and needing help.

I fully agree these sort of posts shouldn't end up in AIBU though.

There is a way you can bring up all unanswered threads. I do it sometimes and see if there are any I can reply to or at least bump for the OP. However, it's tucked away (on the desktop) and not obvious. Perhaps if this feature could be made more obvious it would encourage people to use it and this would get responses for threads in less popular topics.

Thanks again for the various ideas. We are reading and making notes. In the meantime, someone mentioned Unanswered Threads. There's a link here to them - oldest are at the bottom - if anyone fancied jumping on. Even if you can't particularly help but pop on just to say 'hi' it will bump the thread and improve its chances of getting an answer. Often, the boards are just so busy that a thread moves out of Active a bit quickly and so doesn't get picked up.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/unanswered