Crisis policy and crisis page
Hi All,
Today I am writing to follow-up & provide some more context on a topic we all care greatly about - our crisis referral policy.
I would first like to apologize for any confusion you may have experienced regarding the policy. The policy on crisis referral has been the same since 7 Cups was born in 2013 and we will do a better job of communicating this policy across the site to all users so its clear and we are all on the same page.
We have been working hard behind the scenes to figure out the best way to approach this topic. We heard from the community, we researched what other communities like ours do, we researched what the best practices are in the peer community, spoken to licensed psychologists and so much more….
Today, we are going to reveal one piece of the puzzle. We want to emphasize that this will be an ongoing project that we continue to strengthen.
We are excited to announce that we will be adding a Crisis referral page to our site. It will be easily accessible from the site footer and listed under chat drop down. It will be available for members and listeners to utilize. Listeners will be able to refer members to this page easily.
Note on the page contents:
Right now, we are working on creating a training process and protocol that would leverage the QPR (question persuade refer) process. It may take some time to get this guide created. Additionally, we will be making another post on how to manage crimes or other types of crisis. Please stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, we ask that you use this onsite crisis page to help educate one another on how to best support individuals who are in crisis. Please always refer someone who is in crisis. As we do not have training in place to teach you how to differentiate between a passive or actively suicidal individual right now, in both scenarios, we ask you to refer the individuals to crisis hotlines. You may also refer anyone directly to this new crisis page as to ensure they are clear on the policy.
Again, we are working to build out a more comprehensive training program on how to manage a warm hand off to the crisis centers. But this will take some time, we ask you that you are patient and supportive of this process.
Thank you all for being patient so far! We are excited to continue to make this a stronger process.
@Jill7cups @Laura
There was a lot of work put into the 7cups wiki at: https://www.7cups.com/wiki/hotlines-crisis-resources/ which seam not to be linked anywhere other than under the Community link. Please remove my name as the owner of the section since I don't have the time to help with that part of the wiki anymore since many hours were put into that from @Gracey and myself and it seams that a lot of people don't even know about it.
This is a great addition, I really think it will help us support the members who we personally cannot!
Thank you for letting us into this secret!! Looking forward to hearing the rest of the project in due course! :)
@Jill7cups
Thank you for you work on this. This is most helpful
@Jill7cups
Thank you very much for this information Jill, it's a great help.
@Jill7cups I have spent some times in the chatrooms, for over a year, even if I am more active on the forums nowadays. There are many different kind of people coming in there. There are people who are really disheartened and have a general aversion towards the crisis/suicide hotlines available to them due to past experiences. Some people have not tried those yet and open to it. You never know tho.
Generally a referral is always sent out and, at least I, always try to gently direct people to the direction of professional help however as long as they are around I usually try to keep them company and just keep them distracted if needed and try to support them.
I am not sure what exactly the rule is there but that is just my experience and something that generally feels right. I would not feel comfortable just giving a list of resources to someone personally and tell that that I cannot help them and will not support them.
Many people have mentioned here gray zones, and a lot of cases kind of fall into that anyway. This is just my personal experience and feedback. I think we should always have these resources at hand but try to be supportive as long as it is not triggering for us, of course, because even in a supporter and listener role our mental health has to come first.
@redmark appreciate your point of view! This is a complicated thing for sure. We need to be compassionate and make people feel welcome, but also need to be sure people who need crisis related help find it in the appropriate places. It is so tough! I really commend all our volunteers who try to navigate this with our members.
@Jill7cups
Is there a policy in place for members to utilise if their listener becomes suicidal?
I emailed the community email and I sent through a listener feedback form. However I'm really worried about them. As they asked me not to leave them but are now not messaging me back anymore.
@Kibs Hello there Kibs! Listeners are expected to maintain professionalism and should know better. You're not obligated to give support to them as it's not your duty as a member to give support to a listener, more so if they're suicidal. If a listener is suicidal, they should be reported and their account should be put on hold for 2 weeks. It's actually stated here but since you're a member I'm afraid you won't be able to see the listener community guidelines.
It's so nice of you to be concerned abour your listener and let's just hope they've reached out for help now that they're not responding to you. Good job in emailing community@7cups.com or leaving them a review stating that they're suicidal just to ensure that they won't be seeking support from other members when experiencing suicidal ideation. Thank you!
@Erato
Thanks for responding! Prior to this, he was a good listener and really helped me a lot. I really hope he did seek help.
Hello! This is Freya :). Just checking in today
Hi everyone
@Jill7Cups @7Cupscommunity
Hello. Lets say a member is in crisis, connected to a crisis hotline site and is in queue for talking to crisis counselor on a crisis hotline. The member is asking us to stay with them while they wait.
In this specific case, where they are using the appropriate resources but just waiting in queue, do we still have to end the chat, or can we stay with them while they wait?
@Jill7Cups
Thank you for taking the time to go over this again. I appreciate your help with it. :-)