We recently deployed an update on the forums which uses IP addresses to automatically limit how people overseas use the forums. People outside Australia will be able to see the forums but will not be able to register or post. This does mean that when an Australian based member travels overseas they will not be able to post in the forums while they are outside the country. We acknoweldge that this might cause some distress to some existing members who are planning overseas travel. We are going to explain the reasons below to hopefully help you understand our position. If you are going overseas or will miss the support of someone who is going overseas, we encourage you to connect with your GP/support service or local helplines (SANE helpline or other helplines) to get some support around planning for how you are going to stay well and get support during this time. 🧡
We did just want to clarify the reasons and hope that you can understand more about the situation we are in:
Legal: Our service operates under Australian legislation requirements - we have obligations about intervening and escalating risk of harm issues. We have all the tools, processes and systems we need to do this when a someone eis in Australia, but we when that person is overseas we are unable to act on our legal obligation.
Safety: Our service is based on the context of Australian health system - we rely on the systems in place here in Australia - emergency services, mental health teams, crisis services etc - to be able to provide a safe service. We can't operate on our own - we rely on these systems and services.
Best Interest: It's tricky to navigate as staff, when someone posts at risk from overseas we feel helpless and that we got in the way of them getting to a service that could have helped them better than we could. We feel it is those people's best interest to not get in the way of their help-seeking journey when we are not in a position to best support them.
We are currently working on an update to the guidelines to reflect this further. Unfortunately this is not something we can make exceptions as it is a legal and risk issue - it would also be extremely difficult to manage technically, socially and logistically.
If you have any questions you can reply below or emailteam@saneforums.org (please note that not all moderators will be across this but s-jay and Lauz will get back to you as soon as we can - we work standard business hours)
