Hi I’m new

Hey Chocolatier,

Welcome to the ReachOut Online Community! 😊 I am really glad that you have found us and have been able to reach out for some support.

I am sorry to hear that you were struggling last night, how are you feeling this morning?

Thank you for being so honest with us about what you have been experiencing. I am sorry to hear that you have experienced abuse for most of your life.

I am really glad that you have been able to reach out for some support as you don’t have to deal with this alone.

I was wondering if you have any other supports in your life at the moment that you have been able to talk to about this, like a friend, family member, GP or Mental Health professional? It is really great to hear that you have been connecting with other support services.

I was wondering if you have any coping strategies, or ways that you take care of yourself when you are struggling?

If so, did any of these strategies help you last night? 

I wanted to let you know that we have sent an email to check in with you. Could you please keep an eye out for that?

I also know that you mentioned that you are wanting some advice on how this platform works and have included some more information below for you.

Take care and we hope to hear back from you soon!💜

Questions about using the Online Community:

We have a few different spaces that you can create a post in, it looks like you have already found the heavy feels space and posted here which is a great start! In these spaces, you can also look through to see other community members posts and you can reply to their post in the comments and connect with other young people. We also have some lighter spaces such as our games, hanging out and taking care of myself spaces.

If there are any spaces that you are interested in, you can give them a follow which will display the posts in these spaces on your feed. To follow the spaces, there should be a ‘spaces’ option next to guidelines and feed on your desktop. If you are using accessing by phone, when you press the three lines in the top right corner there will be a dropdown option which includes spaces. Once you are on this page if you press ‘follow’ it will change to ‘following’.

You can also adjust your notifications on your profile based on your preferences. In regards to the question about IP address, no other community members can view this in statistics (you can only see your own). We also require all community members to remain anonymous at all times.

We also know that you mentioned that you weren’t sure about what you can and can’t say and want to thank you for being mindful of this. I wanted to share our Community Guidelines with you which I strongly encourage you to have a read through. If you have any questions about any guidelines after having a read through or are still unsure about what you can post, please feel free to reach out to us.

Lastly, I wanted to let you know that the ReachOut Online Community is not a crisis service. Our Online Community is moderated by ReachOut staff members from 9am-11pm on weekdays and 10am-11pm on weekends and public holidays. If you are ever needing urgent support, or support outside of these hours we have a list of other support services here.

If you have any more questions please let us know. I look forward to seeing you around the community.