Ashley, I think the best way to grow our community is for each of us to commit to participating at least on a weekly basis if not more often. I am so pleased to see more people checking in asking questions and posting updates on how they are doing. Participation in the past has been sporadic but it seems like people are sticking around now. I just hope it continues. I do encourage others still lurking to jump on in... the waters are safe here and I strongly believe that each of us has something to contribute which everyone else needs to hear.
We do not advertise the site as the advertisements would compete with our client sites. This site is a free to use site with no advertisements as well so we do not have the funding to advertise or make technical upgrades at this time.
For this reason I have hoping we could dream up strategies using only the resources we do have - this site and te fabulous members like all of you!
Hi ~m! Great to see you back. I've missed you! Don't you dare apologize you have always been a huge contributer to the site - you have nothing to apologize for. Looking forward to reading more from you again.
Excellent topic Ashley... community growth has been my goal as well, for as long as I've been a member here. I apologize for my absence of late as I was inpatient for a month and am just getting back to the forums. I have a lot to catch up on (both at home and here at the DC). I will be back to post my thoughts and comments on growth after I get a feel for what has been happening during my absence. I am SOOOOO GLAD to be back amongst friends!
Community is indeed very important for the growth of anything important such as this wonderful site and to benefit people.
What stands this site apart from the others are 1) the active role of the health educators and 2) the well designed CBT program. I think that we do not find more people participating in the forums because these forums are tied to the CBT program and to be honest I think very few people do the work necessary to complete the program.
Because CBT requires work, and in general terms people want a “quick fix”, for attracting more members I think the marketing of the site could be around these forums and the supportive health educators, where everyone could talk and share about their problems related to depression with the moderation and intervention of the health educators. As members got involved in the community, they would also know the existence and benefits of CBT who could help them manage their depression, so they could give a try to CBT with the support of the existent community.
threads to significant support groups. eg. Depression, Bipolar, return to work etc. Have seen some clean up and this is great.
Also not removing whole email b/o hyperlinks, can used inexpensive firewall that makes hyperlinks just as text.
Especially with mental health, do not want our community spending significant time with email and then having WHOLE email removed. This is not necessary and very detrimental.
Also MHCC has excellent resources for e-health in relation to mental health initiatives.
We all know that this support group has a special group of members and we want to keep it that way. We also want to build on the many strengths we already have. This thread will be dedicated to doing just that. This will be a thread where we share ideas on how to grow this community and make it stronger. This isn’t about technical requests or complaints (save that for the feedback section please). This is a thread where members organize to touch more lives and to make this place a more fulfilling outlet for everyone.
One of the greatest strengths we have in this community is our veteran members. I hope that our veteran members add their input in here as they see fit as this community would not exist without them. I also hope our new members share their thoughts as the more new voices we have the stronger we become!
I want the members here to lead this growth and organization of efforts because you all are the life blood of this site. But to get the discussion flowing here are some questions you may want to think and write about: What do you think is important to focus on in growing this community? What can the members do to aid this? What are your gifts and what are the gifts of the other members that we can utilize? How can the members and Health Educators make this place a more welcoming place for all? What are our community’s strengths?
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and I strongly believe that each of us has something to contribute which everyone else needs to hear.
