User feedback on SaSu Forum-Wide Survey (SFWS)

[Rhizomorph1]

Hi all,

I'm in the planning stage of a forum-wide survey (with oversight & approval from SaSu's admin/mod team of course).

To improve the conceptualization & representation of what our members want in the study, I'd like to engage the forum for feedback or ideas; any questions you'd like to see asked in the survey, thoughts you have, etc. feel free to share them openly & freely :)

The aims of the study are as follows (copied from a preliminary version of the consent form):

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS SURVEY?
The purpose of this survey is to document the experiences of members on the forum. Our goal is to collect data to critically evaluate the pro-choice, person-centered, and harm reductive philosophical orientation of the forum. This goal is followed by multiple sub-goals:

• Better meet the needs of forum members by informing administrative communication, oversight, and practice that employs a harm reductive and choice-focused philosophy that is strictly evidence-based.
• Dispel common public myths and misrepresentations about the forum and its users to remove stigma and improve representation of suicidal people; a socially marginalized & alienated group.
• Encourage future research on suicide prohibition norms, laws, marginalization and their outcomes.

 

[Yuki_03]

Great survey, hope this brings light to many misconceptions and misunderstandings in our forum.

Maybe a bit early for the question, (if it's question based) which questions you may ask for the survey? Just to get a general concept of it.

Hope you get the most out of this! Thanks for making it, it'll help in the future.

 

[Rhizomorph1]

Great survey, hope this brings light to many misconceptions and misunderstandings in our forum.

Maybe a bit early for the question, (if it's question based) which questions you may ask for the survey? Just to get a general concept of it.

Hope you get the most out of this! Thanks for making it, it'll help in the future.

I won't be sharing any specific questions with anyone besides the oversight team (consisting of myself and some mods) until it is released, just to be sure all questions are approved, but I will say that I hope to explore themes around what has led people to the site (illness, circumstances, etc.), whether & what they found helpful about the site, whether they have disclosed & the impact of disclosure/non-disclosure, etc.

The big question in my mind is "what do suicidal people want from the world? how can we bridge the gap so we feel less stigmatized and can feel accepted for how we are so we can heal or die transparently & with others supporting us either way?"

 

[Forever Sleep]

I won't be sharing any specific questions with anyone besides the oversight team (consisting of myself and some mods) until it is released, just to be sure all questions are approved, but I will say that I hope to explore themes around what has led people to the site (illness, circumstances, etc.), whether & what they found helpful about the site, whether they have disclosed & the impact of disclosure/non-disclosure, etc.

The big question in my mind is "what do suicidal people want from the world? how can we bridge the gap so we feel less stigmatized and can feel accepted for how we are so we can heal or die transparently & with others supporting us either way?"

I love this idea. I wonder if the pro-life powers that be in society will be all that interested. I hope so. Maybe I'm just cynical but I feel like they don't exactly care what we want because they still think they know what's best for us. I wonder how many of them think we're outright crazy in fact. But still, I'm looking forward to seeing this.

One thing I'd like to see is how many people have reached out for help. How much help they recieved- a rough idea of the length of time in therapy/on meds/in psyche wards. Whether any of it helped and if not (presumably it wasn't that great if they're on a suicide forum!) why did it fail?

Thank you for taking the time to do this. I think the only way attitudes are going to change if is we all talk about this stuff and a survey sounds like a good idea to me.

 

[Rhizomorph1]

I love this idea. I wonder if the pro-life powers that be in society will be all that interested. I hope so. Maybe I'm just cynical but I feel like they don't exactly care what we want because they still think they know what's best for us. I wonder how many of them think we're outright crazy in fact. But still, I'm looking forward to seeing this.

One thing I'd like to see is how many people have reached out for help. How much help they recieved- a rough idea of the length of time in therapy/on meds/in psyche wards. Whether any of it helped and if not (presumably it wasn't that great if they're on a suicide forum!) why did it fail?

Thank you for taking the time to do this. I think the only way attitudes are going to change if is we all talk about this stuff and a survey sounds like a good idea to me.

Great points! Il be sure to ask about users' experiences with therapy, psych wards, etc.

I gather the people whom it worked for aren't on this forum so there's a sampling bias but it's important to know what didn't work for this specific sample

Time periods are very interesting to assess patient follow through as well

I'm sure the data will make a reasonable case for people to take a person-centered approach to us a bit more seriously. Or at least some form of harm reductive resources for people who will inevitably take their lives regardless of medical intervention

 

[Yuki_03]

Hope you can get it done! Thank you so much for putting this much effort to this, though probably we are biased, I think the forum makes a pretty nice sample for a survey! All my best wishes.

 

[UKscotty]

As long as its very short and to the point multiple choice.

Anything complicated and long winded many of us won't have the headspace to complete it.

 

[LunarLight]

What a great idea! Idk if I'll still be alive when it comes out, but if I am, I'll make sure to answer this survey.

 

[Rhizomorph1]

As long as its very short and to the point multiple choice.

Anything complicated and long winded many of us won't have the headspace to complete it.

Gotcha. Il try to keep it concise.

Do you think it would be practical to offer people an option for a short-version + long version survey at the beginning?

This way I can try to collect the breadth of data I'm hoping for while accommodating diverse cognitive and time capacities.

What a great idea! Idk if I'll still be alive when it comes out, but if I am, I'll make sure to answer this survey.

Thank you! Every response will count

Hope you can get it done! Thank you so much for putting this much effort to this, though probably we are biased, I think the forum makes a pretty nice sample for a survey! All my best wishes.

Data samples are often biased. As long as this is accounted for in the methods of the study, it's no problem to analyze a sub-group. It's only relevant for how the findings are interpreted

Studying sub-groups is necessary and warranted :)