[roazee]

Hi, I am new here, and so far am finding this a fantastic site. There is clearly so much material here it will take me a while to find my way around.

I did want to ask one question though. Has anyone heard of a site such as this - in terms of peer support - that is run less as a support/community website and more as a 'health service', complete with detailed and personal application forms, induction, verification, and case notes and overseen by a psychologist (who makes decisions about the 'clients' - not members - based on text records of chat, which is nevertheless moderated by volunteers)? Note, this is not online counselling (which the same site offers) nor is it online group therapy, unless you can call open chat rooms moderated by unqualified volunteers (some short-term training) that.

There is one such depression site in Australia, but I am interested to know if there are any others. If anyone can help I would be very grateful.

Warmest thoughts to all
Roaz

[ECHOES]

Hello roazee and welcome.

No I haven't heard of a site like that. I would not be comfortable participating in a community that was not annonymous unless it was a face to face group type setting.

[VickiesPath]

Hi Roazee,

I have worked in the legal profession and believe that I can say that anything like that would be fertile fodder for someone here in the land of the lawsuit, the United States of America. Someone, somewhere would figure out how to sue someone because of a service like that. I guarantee.

Or as the Cajun Cook used to say.... Aw Gaw-roon-Teeee!

[deliquesce]

lol, vickie. it took me a while to decipher that .

roazee - i only know of that depression site in australia. apparently it's meant to be very good, but i wasn't willing to hand over personal details and such, so i never joined up myself.

[crystalrose]

i know the site you mean. I used that site a little bit before it changed the way things worked. I felt the same as Deliquesce I didn't want to give them my personal details. So them because i didn't give them my personal details they kicked of off the site. Which is real rude and unprofessional, but that site i wouldn't recommend anyway!

[roazee]

Thanks so much for all your comments. Echoes, I agree and many people left this site for this reason, have as others said. Interestingly though, the members are anonymous to each other and this is enforced very strictly. However, the members are far from anonymous to the 'professionals' who run the site.

There are many things I could say here but I will try to concentrate on the one aspect of the way this site operates in relation to 'therapeutic outcomes' it offers. I am particularly interested in what constitutes the nature of a 'therapeutic relationship' in this setting.

If there are case notes, who keeps them? I understand they consist of entries from the volunteer on duty, with perhaps additions by the volunteer coordinator and the senior psychologist. The 'client', however, never sees these, and I would guess most are not even aware of their existence. But they, and the transcripts of conversations with the staff of the site, remain on record and presumably can potentially be used in the case of some 'therapeutic' judgment made somewhere down the track.

I believe there are many potential (and in some cases actual) ethical issues raised and this is why I have been trying to find somewhere that operates in a similar way, to see how they handle them. Perhaps later if anyone is interested I might be able to expand on this a little more. Vickie, I have a legal background myself, LOL. And yes the spectre of lawsuits does seem to raise itself here.

Incidentally, the site in question did once operate in a way which seems similar to PC. I valued that format very much and I am glad to have joined this community.

Thank you again for your comments

Warmest wishes
Roaz

[roazee]

The site to which I referred has now been closed, due to a massive privacy breach in which large numbers of complete transcripts of private and public chat and counselling sessions were found to be available on the web via a simple Google search. They have now been removed (after strenuous denials now proven wrong) and are no longer accessible.

That breach is now under official investigation by government authorities.

Legal action may well arise from this.

Just letting you know
warmest
Rose