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Lauz
Senior Contributor

Forum Events and Service Spotlight's - let us know some thoughts?

Hi everyone,

 

We wanted to talk to you about events - no not talking dress codes and dj vs band, we are talking about the online events we host here in the forums 😉

 

A lot of you will have seen or gotten involved in a Topic Tuesday or two (if you haven’t go and check them out here and hit the support button on the next one!) These events focus on a particular theme and are a live facilitated discussion sometimes featuring a special guest expert - these run for 2 hours.

 

We have also throughout the years done events called Service Spotlights. This event focuses on bringing you useful insight and information around specific services and the ability to ask questions around that service or program to one of their staff members.

 

Back a few years we used this to spotlight SANE forum partners (here is an example) and in more recent times we were utilising them to share a bit more info around programs or areas the SANE Australia team do (example here). These events were open for a week where a staff member from the organisation would reply to questions posted in the thread throughout the week. We have also done some Q&A styles as well (example here). These haven’t been quite as popular as our Topic Tuesday events and we’d like to hear a few things from you all to help us put together a version that engages better with you all!

 

What are some of your thoughts and/or ideas around the format of a Service Spotlight? What would drive you to engage with a Service Spotlight? Or should we wrap these events into a Topic Tuesday style?

 

Are there any other types of events you would want to see run in the forums that shares health information?

8 REPLIES 8

Re: Forum Events and Service Spotlight's - let us know some thoughts?

I think one service that is still really misunderstood by many is the MHCP and how many sessions are available and under what circumstances they can be accessed. It would be great to have some clarification by those who provide this service i.e. medicare. There is still a lot of misunderstanding about how many and when sessions can be accessed under a MHCP - particularly the additional sessions that can be accessed and what they fall under - i.e. additional to the 10 initial sessions and can they be part of a CDMP also.

Re: Forum Events and Service Spotlight's - let us know some thoughts?

Hi @Lauz

with so much childhood trauma around it would be good to speak to someone from SECASA and how they can help. 

Or even someone from the police dept (childhood sexual assault unit) to explain process and law for victims especially historical childhood abuse. 

But this may be too triggering so msybe not a good idea. 

What @Zoe7 suggested is a good one. 

Or even someone from a public hospital CAT team to explain process of how they treat patients and other information they can provide. 

Or even someone from Centrelink to help people with mental illness and what we can obtain from them. 

 

I dont know they’re just some of my thoughts. They may not be good ones though @Lauz

 

Re: Forum Events and Service Spotlight's - let us know some thoughts?

I’d be interested to hear from someone who knows the process re child sexual abuse/historical abuse as suggested by @BlueBay.

 

I am too scared to go to the police and report my offenders, I can’t even tell my own family because some of the offenders are known to them.  The thought of going to court terrifies me.

 

The thing that haunts me the most is that by not going to the police these people may not be known to the police and may be abusing other children.  Is there even a way that these people can be made aware to police while I can be kept anonymous ?  Even the thought of going to the police terrifies me now, my anxiety has just shot through the roof just writing this.

 

Not sure what format this discussion could take place @Lauz , but I’m sure a few around the forums would also be interested.

Re: Forum Events and Service Spotlight's - let us know some thoughts?

Hey @Razzle I’ve got another headache so going to bed. But I will write to you in the morning. I’ll let you know what I did when I went to the police. Xxx

Re: Forum Events and Service Spotlight's - let us know some thoughts?

Thanks @BlueBay. Sleep peacefully, I look forward to hearing from you in the morning ❤️❤️

Re: Forum Events and Service Spotlight's - let us know some thoughts?

Morning @Razzle 

I have posted my reply to you in my own post (not feeling good).  Not sure how to link my post.  Hope you find it and have a read and i hope it doesn't trigger you.  Chat later.  xx

Re: Forum Events and Service Spotlight's - let us know some thoughts?

Hi @Lauz. Thank you for asking for thoughts and feedback on this. Really like the suggestions and ideas above.

You asked for thoughts about a format of a Service Spotlight. When I first joined the forum there was "Ask anything Monday". I didn't catch many of them but liked the idea. Maybe if there was a Service Spotlight or forum event involving a service, something like this could be tied into it. Perhaps something where people from the community could submit questions either on a thread or anonymously, that provided some direction or basis that could be used for a discussion.

What would drive me to engage with a Service Spotlight (or similar) is if it focused on the organisation's approach to working with people and provided perspectives and information that could be quite widely applied. I'm also interested in hearing and learning how organisations seek to support people from a vision/mission/values point and what this actually means for service users. There are so many services of all kinds out there, that getting to know the different approaches services could take might help raise awareness of what range of support is available and what we personally may benefit from and seek to look for when engaging with services.

I really like Topic Tuesdays, both ones that feature 'special guests' and ones that are facilitated by people within SANE. Topic Tuesdays that have a particular focus by involving an organisation can be really helpful for some people, and the ones facilitated by SANE seem to be helpful and engaging more widely. I think it would be great to continue both as they each seem to have lots of different benefits. I'd love for there to be more live facilitated discussions as I find them a great opportunity to share experiences and learn with and from each other, and for members of the community (new, occasional and regular forum users) to come together.

As far as thoughts for future events, something that came to my mind is a 'topic of the week' kind of thing (any of the topics above and a bazillion others could be used!). Something perhaps where a discussion is started by a SANE team member or special guest from a service and encouraged along throughout the week, but something that is quite peer-led and supported to naturally evolve. It could be great to see a gently guided discussion on a particular topic at a slower pace than Topic Tuesday, where we can share experiences and thoughts, ask questions from each other and from 'experts', share resources and information we've found helpful etc.

Re: Forum Events and Service Spotlight's - let us know some thoughts?

Hi @CheerBear @Zoe7 @BlueBay @Razzle,

 

Hope you all saw that I have been in here reading and following! Your ideas and thoughts are really insightful and helpful to us. I am just keeping track of your ideas so that the forums team can review them and try to make some actions from them in line with improving the events that we do.

  • Mental health care plan is a really interesting one @Zoe7 - it would be intriguing to see who we could get as the guest. I agree it is easy to misunderstand and some clarification would probably be quite nice for people 
  • @BlueBay and @Razzle, I agree that there is a lot of experience of trauma in the forums, so perhaps featuring some form of service that can offer some insights around trauma recovery specifically would be valuable. 
  • @CheerBear I think it is really apt to talk about some events being a bit more peer led, we very much see more peer led and peer driven content as part of forum future. Love the perspective you have given on Topic Tuesdays as well (amoungst your other thoguhts too!). 

 

I'll keep you posted as we go, for now this thread will just be open ended though so feel free to float in and share whenever you feel. 

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