Crisis Chat room

[Castle of Glass]

So, recently i thought of this situation: What if a person who was in chat was contemplating on killing themselves, having a panic attack, or any other such crisis.

So i thought that what if VT added a Crises Room to chat, that can only be accessed if a Mod, G-Mod, or Admin puts you in it. If you tried to access it otherwise, you would be block or prompted with a password. And the mod or such would try to talk to the user until they calm down, the urge passes, or until the User is directed to a [insert reason] help line, be it suicide, running away, or what ever.

yes i know that the people on this site are not professionals and are mostly just other teenagers, but i believe that such a room, incase it ever happens would not be a bad idea.

so yea. just an idea, so there you go. :)

[Meganium]

It sounds too dependent on the competence of moderators to handle the situation. Not that I doubt it, of course.

I'm sure that some of us here have dealt with these situations before, but we're not prepared to directly take someone's life into our own hands this way, and locking this chat room so only a few may enter really puts the pressure on. Moderators on this site are no more qualified than anyone else to intervene and try to resolve a mental crisis of some kind.

That's just one reason. I can probably think of a list as to why this would be more dangerous than just having a forum for it. Even with restrictions.

[Blood]

Yeah I don't think that's too good of an idea. We're all just teenagers, and being a moderator doesn't make you any more certified to help a suicidal person than another member. Responding to a post by a suicidal person is one thing, chatting one on one with them is another. It would put a lot of pressure on both people. Especially if something went wrong.

Also, if someone is actually contemplating suicide, I hope they would call a suicide hotline or talk to someone in real life, not go in a chatroom.

[WeAreOneRepublic]

Like stated before, the staff here are not in anyway trained to be psychologists and if you do that then you are almost putting the life of someone else who they don't know in their hands. If they were in that sort of state I doubt they would enter the chat room unless they thought of it as a last ditch attempt to get someone to listen to them.

[ImCoolBeans]

I really don't think that's a good idea. Some moderators may be good advice givers, but when it goes that far I don't want them to feel that they are expected to deal with something of that nature. I think that's really asking a lot from teenagers, it would be inappropriate of Val and me to ask the staff to possibly put somebody's life in their discretion. It would be inappropriate to ask anybody to do that on this site.

[AlexOnToast]

I think it might just cause further problems, but your intention is noble :)

[DerBear]

It is an interesting topic proposal.

However Mike is right, being a moderator gives you some degree of obligation to keep the chat safe which in itself is sometimes a little nerve racking. I mean if someone comes in and they act 'funny' you know they might be up to something but you don't have proof and you are afraid to leave but you have too, that in itself can be quite a horrible feeling especially if you are a new moderator.

Now with this, an example of someone coming in threatening suicide, that would be the worst thing because even if the person was faking, lying, attention seeking you feel obligated to help even if you aren't great and that is a lot of pressure. In a thread if you feel you can't help you walk away, maybe with a twinge of regret but you can easily walk away. Imagine if in real time you had someone come in and say they were going to commit suicide you can't turn away and in doing that it adds great pressure.

[johndoe1112]

yeah i do like this idea but its not the fact that there not quilified what happens when they forget to sign on to the chat does someone else take over

[ImagineRepublicCity]

Actually, there's a site called blahtherapy.com which does just that but it's really difficult because someone can be venting and some asshole can just be like "Who cares about you?" because it does say that they're not trained and it's a really risky idea. No matter how qualified or how much 'experience' you have of the topic, as teens, it'll be really difficult to help someone in a life-threatening situation and still carry on life knowing you could've have 'killed someone.' (Trust me, something like that has happened to me before). It's a nice idea and all, but I think maybe just posting on the forums (for the moment) would be a bit more open and not 'on the spot.'