Health & Wellness Subs

Thoughts @TomRFD?

titaniumtux wrote: ↑ Should add Mental Health and Dental.

Dental simply because of the volume. Browsed through H&W and there's a lot of dental threads.

Mental health because of the sensitivity of the topics. Should be in a sub IMO. Volume may or may not justify it, but it'd keep that section of RFD much cleaner.

My 2¢

Not enuf traffic to warrant more sub forums.

As much as I would love to see more open conversation about mental health, it would need to be done carefully. Online forums shouldn't be a replacement for therapy or other trained intervention and people shouldn't be getting advice on serious issues from random strangers online. It's a tricky balance and would need to be carefully moderated by individuals with some background in or knowledge of the field so that those individuals that clearly need more support can be pointed in the right direction.

OntEdTchr wrote: ↑ As much as I would love to see more open conversation about mental health, it would need to be done carefully. Online forums shouldn't be a replacement for therapy or other trained intervention and people shouldn't be getting advice on serious issues from random strangers online. It's a tricky balance and would need to be carefully moderated by individuals with some background in or knowledge of the field so that those individuals that clearly need more support can be pointed in the right direction.

While I mostly agree, seems that the mental health discussions are happening regardless, and there's opportunity to funnel them into a sub section so that users can know what they're walking into by browsing those threads.

I know there are a plethora of other web forums on mental health, but the discussions exist in H&W...I'd rather see them isolated or barred.

OntEdTchr wrote: ↑ As much as I would love to see more open conversation about mental health, it would need to be done carefully. Online forums shouldn't be a replacement for therapy or other trained intervention and people shouldn't be getting advice on serious issues from random strangers online. It's a tricky balance and would need to be carefully moderated by individuals with some background in or knowledge of the field so that those individuals that clearly need more support can be pointed in the right direction.

The answer is gonna be the same regardless. The answer on majority health forums staffed by MD's and psychologists. They can give you general info but at the end of the day the same blurb. "Go see a mental health specialist as you cannot properly diagnose or provide treatment without first seeing the patient on an ongoing basis." That shud be the same blurb here by the mods after every mental health thread. No need for sub-forums. I'm a frequent visitor of Health and Wellness. There arent enuff specialists in the RFD database to do anything. I've seen responses from the legit to the wackadoodle. So nooo.

titaniumtux wrote: ↑ While I mostly agree, seems that the mental health discussions are happening regardless, and there's opportunity to funnel them into a sub section so that users can know what they're walking into by browsing those threads.

I know there are a plethora of other web forums on mental health, but the discussions exist in H&W...I'd rather see them isolated or barred.

That’s pretty stigmatizing. Mental health IS health. If we don’t funnel any other health topics into a subsection, there isn’t any reason to do so with mental health topics specifically. I fail to see why there is no need for people to “know what they’re walking into” when reading a thread about cancer or diabetes, but for some reason there is for threads about depression or anxiety. I think all the threads in the health and wellness section should come with a disclaimer, as there’s a lot of bad or simply misinformed advice being given, and people should not be getting medical advice from internet strangers. For that reason, I could understand wanting to bar health questions/discussions altogether (not necessarily agree, but understand), but targeting the mental health topics specifically is inappropriate, and in any case unnecessary, as the forum isn’t busy enough to warrant it.