Perry Amanda, Lamont-Mills Andrea, du Preez Jan, du Plessis Carol
School of Psychology and Wellbeing, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia.
Laidlaw College, Social of Social Practice, Auckland, New Zealand.
Front Psychiatry. 2022 Jun 13;13:863509. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.863509. eCollection 2022.
Individuals experiencing suicidal crises increasingly turn to online mental health forums for support. Support can come from peers but also from online moderators, many of whom are trained health professionals. Much is known about users' forum experiences; however, the experiences of professional moderators who work to keep users safe has been overlooked. The beneficial nature of online forums cannot be fully realized until there is a clearer understanding of both parties' participation. This study explored the experiences of professional online forum moderators engaged in suicide prevention.
A purposive sample of professionally qualified moderators was recruited from three online mental health organizations. In-depth semi-structured, video-recorded interviews were conducted with 15 moderators (3 male, 12 female), to explore their experiences and perceptions of working in online suicide prevention spaces. Data was analyzed using inductive thematic analysis.
Five themes were identified related to the experiences and challenges for moderators. These were the sense of the unknown, the scope of the role, limitations of the written word, volume of tasks, and balancing individual vs. community needs.
Findings indicate that the professionally qualified moderator role is complex and multifaceted, with organizations failing to recognize these aspects. Organizations restrict moderators from using their full therapeutic skill set, limiting them to only identifying and re-directing at-risk users to crisis services. The benefits of moderated online forums could be enhanced by allowing moderators to use more of their skills. To facilitate this, research is needed that examines how moderators use their skills to identify at-risk users.
经历自杀危机的个人越来越多地转向在线心理健康论坛寻求支持。支持不仅可以来自同龄人，也可以来自在线版主，其中许多是经过培训的健康专业人员。关于用户的论坛体验我们了解很多；然而，致力于保障用户安全的专业版主的体验却被忽视了。在更清楚地了解双方的参与情况之前，在线论坛的益处无法得到充分实现。本研究探讨了参与自杀预防的专业在线论坛版主的体验。
从三个在线心理健康组织中招募了有专业资质的版主作为有目的的样本。对15名版主（3名男性，12名女性）进行了深入的半结构化视频访谈，以探讨他们在在线自杀预防领域工作的体验和看法。使用归纳主题分析法对数据进行分析。
确定了与版主的体验和挑战相关的五个主题。这些主题是未知感、角色范围、书面文字的局限性、任务量以及平衡个人需求与社区需求。
研究结果表明，有专业资质的版主角色复杂且多面，而各组织并未认识到这些方面。各组织限制版主充分运用其治疗技能，仅让他们识别有风险的用户并将其重新引导至危机服务机构。通过允许版主更多地运用他们的技能，可以增强有版主管理的在线论坛的益处。为此，需要进行研究，考察版主如何运用他们的技能来识别有风险的用户。
