How we bring people together at Side by Side
Cora explains what it’s like to work on our online platform Side by Side and how it makes members feel safe and heard.
I started working at Mind seven years ago. I've always had an affinity for mental health because I have my own lived experience and I know so many other people who have been impacted.
I didn't understand the breadth of what Mind did back then, but I was aware of Mind’s ‘squiggle logo’. I think that's a good visual representation of what mental health can feel like, especially when you're feeling all over the place.
I spent my first six months learning everything that Mind does to support people – including Side by Side.
“Side by Side offers support and enables you to talk to somebody who understands what you’re going through.”
Side by Side a 24/7 online safe space for anyone with experience of mental health problems. It aims to bring people together and connect with others who might have similar experiences. Side by Side offers support and enables you to talk to somebody who understands what you’re going through.
I was always interested in Side by Side, so when a role became available, I went for it. My job is to keep it safe and active. It’s such a rewarding thing to work on.
We tell people who have never been on it before that it’s a bit like Facebook, for mental health. It's also completely anonymous.
“The beautiful thing about peer support is that it just keeps bending to your needs, especially when we’ve got such a large community.”
The community tends to fit and adapt to what you need, and you'll always find somebody who's on the same wavelength as you. Some people will be feeling more well than others and be in a position where they can support someone that day, whereas another day they may need to lean on the community for that same support. The beautiful thing about peer support is that it just keeps bending to your needs, especially when we've got such a large community.
It’s amazing seeing some friendships that come up on Side by Side. As well as having the wall that people can post on, there's one to one direct messaging. That's where the much deeper peer support happens. We can see in the back end the amount that people are messaging, there are threads with thousands of messages because people are chatting constantly.
With Side by Side, rather than working towards an end goal of feeling better, it's a goal of feeling a bit more supported each day and being less alone with what you're going through.
I like to think what we're providing is that lack of loneliness. Helping create that feeling of connection and hope. We can track the most used words, and the last time we looked the most used word on the service was “hope”. That's lovely.
“We encourage our moderators to focus first and foremost on safety. Their next priority is signposting and helping people explore support options."
Part of my role on Side by Side is supporting our team of moderators. A standard moderations shift is 3 hours long. We only have one moderator on at a time, but there are about 20 of them on the rota. Our moderators always have support on hand, so they're never left alone.
Every single post gets read by a moderator. Sometimes they’ll reach out to people over a one-to-one private conversation to offer extra support, safeguarding or signposting..
We encourage our moderators to focus first and foremost on safety. Their next priority is signposting and helping people explore different support options if their needs extend beyond Side by Side. We also encourage them to get involved in the community – the Mind team will often engage with members in a fun way, too! It’s a great space, but sometimes you need additional support alongside the peer support.
We train our moderators to explore these support options in a way were we’re not telling people what to do. It's very much led by the individual in how people find what might be helpful for them in that moment.
“People give us powerful feedback, saying that Side by Side saved their life, which is incredible to think about.”
Members give us powerful feedback, sometimes saying that it saved their life, which is incredible to think about. People also tell us that it feels like a safe space where they can open up and be themselves without worrying. It's a space where people can really understand, and that seems very sadly rare.
But in order to make sure that it’s always there for you we need people to help us make that possible. And that comes via funding. By helping us pay for moderation out of hours it makes sure that we can stay open and provide a safe service.
Related Topics
Information and support
When you’re living with a mental health problem, or supporting someone who is, having access to the right information - about a condition, treatment options, or practical issues - is vital. Visit our information pages to find out more.
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