Advice needed: Moderating social media

[opplevelse]

So I am a moderator on a very large forum. Occasionally we get posts indicating depression and one such post has appeared recently. I wont repost it here as it would then become searchable, but needless to say it indicates a depressed individual who is threatening self harm. This person has said very similar things over a very long period of time (probably 15 years or more), and has a very confused and odd look of the world, is full of conspiracy theories and I suspect he has some other serious mental health issues. Over the last 15+ years various people have tried to help him on the forum, but none have been successful, and to many it appears his posts are nothing more than attention seeking. "It's tough to help someone who actively does not want to be helped. Complaining about his lot in life is such a part of his identity at this point" as one other moderator put it, and I tend to agree.

I'm actually not so worried about him self harming, as this has been going on for over 15 years, but I am concernmed about the potential impact his posts may have on other more vulnerable people. I guess I am looking for some advice on how to handle situations like this, do we let his post remain unedited? Do we post a warning / suggestion to contact BB / Lifeline etc? Any other strategies to help people like this?

Sorry if I have put this in the wrong place, please feel free to move if it should be elsewhere!

James

[romantic_thi3f]

Hey James,

This is a great question, thank you for asking.  It's really tricky as a mod, because somehow we have to balance what's healthy and safe for that person and what's healthy and safe for the forums, and sometimes they are two seperate things.

In Beyond Blue these discussions happen too, because it has to be safe for both the user and the forums.  The benefit of BB though, is that there is the capacity to contact users offline; where as you might not have that option..? 

Maybe you can have a brainstorm with your team about some of the options available to you; you might have a pinned/auto response, an auto response for this member, letting this member reaching out anyway, restricting them from the forums, etc.  

I know it comes across as attention seeking, but there's a genuine need from him for the support even if the messages aren't considered 'successful'.  Having access to BB, Lifeline or other mental health resources is always a good idea regardless of what you decide.

Hope this helps,

rt

[Mark Z.]

Hi opplevelse,

Welcome to the forum.

Please don't be sorry, you come to the right place. I can tell how much efforts you've made to try to help this member and to protect others as well, you're doing great job.

I think it's a great idea to suggest this member to contact BB or Lifeline, but you need to be careful with giving him a warning. Before trying to do anything like this, if it's possible, I'd like to suggest you to have a one-on-one communication with him, if you're not the perfect one to do so, maybe someone else in your forum, like the administrator. Sometimes when you talk to the person directly you find he's different from previous impression. However if it's again the rules of your forum then suggesting him to contact BB can be the first thing to do.

Mark