Who/What do you want to see in the forums?

[NikNik]

Hi everyone,

We are so grateful to you all for your involvement with the forum so far.

The support that has been shown and the experiences that have been shared have been phenominal. We are also thankful for the feedback you have given us. We really want you all to be involved in the building of this forum and help it be what you want it to be.

With this in mind, I want to hear what type of features you want to see in the forums. I don't want to influence your responses, but as an example, you may suggest a special guest, or an online session focusing on <insert topic> or something completely different altogether.

You can be as detailed or as broad as you wish. We will take everyone's ideas and try and work out how we can incorporate them into the forums.

We are committed in ensuring that the members are at the centre of all we do and we'd love for you to help inform the development of this community.

Thanks

NikNik

[ivana]

•Genuine discussion without suppression.
•Community sincerely attempting to help each other instead of "useless"/obvious answers such as "see a doctor"
•Sharing of research,studies,latest treatments etc..
•Discussions surrounding theories of Psychiatric Illness and physical illnesses that can involve "mental" symptoms such as Vitamin B12 deficiency.
•Discussions on current public perception of mental illness.
•Brainstorming on how to end stigma in the media,by medical practitioners,in sporting clubs,schools etc...
•People discussing their feelings/fears/stressors regarding Government budget proposal etc..
•Discussions on how "consumers" can be more involved in the governance and deliverance of mental health services and how to overcome barriers to this happening.

[Jake]

Hi Nik,

Just some more feedback in the form of a few technical questions please - it's not criticism :-

1) Is there any way the Information Technology (so that's what IT means - Lol!) team can arrange all of the drop-down menus (and sub-menus) to be in alphabetical order please?

It might not seem very significant, but when there are lots and lots of options, it can be quite tedious for some people to have to read through every option, just to find what they are looking for, especially if the word starts with 'A'. For example, in 'Information', 'About SANE' is around half way down (should be 1st), then 'Contact us' is at the bottom (should be 3rd).

This means if someone is looking for a word starting with 'A', they have to read every word until they find it, then do the same in a sub-menu. This has annoyed me for years, as most government websites are like this. 

2)  I received an email from SANE stating that the site would not be 'live' for 2 weeks, what does this actually mean please?. There are different ways to access the 'Lived Experience Forum', depending on whether a person is logged in or not. Posts can be currently read by members of the public who are not 'logged in' and it seems anyone (not just the test group) can just make up a name, register and post - is this correct please?

3) I think it would be a good idea to standardize the discussion topics headings text in blue, not black, as blue usually indicates an active link - conversely some of the text headings on the SANE website pages are in blue, but are inactive. Again, could be a bit confusing. For the sake of making things easier for everyone, I think it would be a good idea to standardise these sorts of issues.

Thanks Nik,

Regards, Jake (I have to pull myself up here, as I go to type my real name every time)!

[NikNik]

All great feedback.

Jake - Thanks for the tech questions.

1) I will pass on your feedback about the drop down menus. Unfortunately that's not my 'domain' because it's related to the wider SANE website. I believe the website is being reviewed soon. My understanding is that drop down menus on websites in general (not specifically SANE)  put the options at the top that they want people to visit the most, or what they believe the auidence will want to find quickly... but I'm not an expert on that stuff... just my attempt to explain.

2) GREAT question. The forums is not open to the general public right now. At the moment, it's a group of founding members (ie: you!) testing everything out. It will be open to the wider public (Link from the website and promotion) during the week commencing 11th Aug.

3) I will pass on this feedback. I have also noticed when you hyperlink a link in a post, it doesn't underline the word, so it doesn't look like a link. I have added this to the list 🙂

[Jake]

Hi Nik,

Regarding point 2) I may not have explained myself properly - "the forum is not open to the general public" can you expand on that statement please? What does this mean in a technical sense?

If you pretend for a moment that I am a member of the public (not registered and not logged in) looking at the SANE website, I can access all the forum information when not logged in and if I felt like replying, I could just register a false name and give a false reply - do you see what I mean? Another bug?

If not, please ask me to qualify the apparent problem.

Thanks,

Regards, Jake

[NikNik]

Hi Jake,

My wording was a bit misleading with that point, my apologies.

"going live" - or "releasing the service to the public" means that we will be making it formally publicly available via the SANE website, and the websites of partner organisations around Australia, most likely in the week starting August 11 this year.

You are correct that the forum is actually technically available to anyone - who can find it - right now (via the SANE Australia website only). For technical reasons, we've needed to expose it via the SANE Australia website drop-down menu to enable this testing and early contribution activity.

There may be some people who find the Lived Experience forum via the SANE website before we promote it publicly, and to be honest, we think that's fine and hope you agree - as they too can be early contributors!

The Lived Experience Forum, like the Carers Forum, will be able to be seen and read by anyone when it is formally publicly released, just like it is technically now. People only need to register (which we hope they will) if they wish to post a comment or "like" a comment.

We know from the experience of other online communities that many people will come to the forums and get benefit from simply reading other people's comments. That's why we have made it open to anyone to read. Remembering the fact that the forums are anonymous, I hope this note might alleviate any concerns.

[kenny66]

I would like to see a forum about how Government policy related to mental illness actually provides postive outcome, apart from all of the motherhood staements about removing stigma and barriers to employment.

[Jake]

Hi Kenny,

Good point - I am able to do regular voluntary work in my local community, which is great for building up my self confidence and esteem, but this comes at a financial cost to myself, as I have to drive an older thirsty vehicle quite a distance to and from work.  

I don't qualify for the Centrelink 'Mobility Allowance', because (according to Centrelink) I don't do enough hours per fortnight doing voluntary work. 

I don't mind doing the work, but I tried to look for some sort of government 'fuel allowance for volunteers' just to cover my fuel expenses (not my time) but I could not find anything.

They want volunteers to help in the community, but where is the incentive? I'm sure this applies to lots of volunteers. 

If anyone has heard of such a scheme, I know lots of other volunteers that would be keen to find out!

Regards, Jake