An idea for another sticky in this board. Can the CT please read too.
 

Okay, so I know that euphoria blossom recently posted here asking how we can improve the stickies in this board. I think she's not around at the moment, so I don't know how those are progressing or who is writing them.

The ideas we had are:

• A sticky with information about seeing a GP/psychiatrist/therapist/CAMHs for the first time and information about what adult services (CMHT) and CAMHs can do.
• A sticky with information about going into hospital/what hospital is like/being sectioned.
• A sticky with information about the most common MH problems- Depression, Anxiety, PTSD/C-PTSD, Personality Disorders, Bipolar etc and also information about the importance of not self diagnosing/the differences between BPD and normal teenage behaviour etc
• A sticky with basic information about the different types of psychiatric medication, but also expressing the importance of liasing with your prescribing doctor about any concerns and that everyone's experiences are different.

I also had an idea for a sticky-

• Information on dealing with CMHTs when there is a disagreement ie they do not think a therapy or treatment is beneficial when you do or they are refusing funding and ways you can help secure funding for yourself. To include information on accessing PALs (advocacy) and appointing a solicitor and legal aid.

I was wondering who would be writing the articles, and maybe if it was something some of us regulars on this board could help with? Between us we've got a wealth of experience with these matters.

YES i like this idea :) good one.

Yeh, I think that would be very helpful :) I would like to help write them, Im probably not very articulate right now, but I can try.

*pounces into thread* I saw my name, 'ello. And thank you for compiling all those sticky ideas for me! *can now just copy that into the CT board* *grins* This is great, thank you.

I was thinking this myself, with regards to getting people on this board to help write this information for the stickies. I know a lot of you guys know more about this than I do for a start! I'm not sure where our lovely CT Heads have gone, as well as Sarah, but I'll try and get this sorted out to the best of our extent in the meantime.

Do you guys have any other ideas for stickies? Is there anything you want to see in the two ickle forums attached to this one? Who would like to contribute something if this can go ahead?

If you have anything already written, feel free to PM them to me with "CT stickies" being somewhere in the title so I know - but don't start or prepare to start writing anything yet until I've gone through what we already have, whether this can go ahead, what we need, etc.

Thank you muchly!

Chelsea
(CT - Forum Discussion Team Leader)

Oh you are around Chelsea :)

Good good!

Bumpity bump.

*excited*

Fabby idea =D

what bout a forum bout medication info...for those asking bout the meds they are on ...they can get alittle more info on that med.....

and what bout the most serious mental health illness aswell

which has info on those ...for people to read to see if they really have that illness

fab idea!

We can't have a new forum just for medication info, but like I said info on meds and the most common mental illnesses should be covered in a sticky as that's what we get the most threads about.

How about, just like having information about different medications in a sticky, also having one with information about the different types of therapy on it.
e.g. CBT, DBT, CAT, IPT...?
Just an idea.
I like the other ideas too by the way :)

Hey just wanted to say i like this thread and it has some brill ideas in it which i think could really make vital information in this forum a lot more accessible etc to those who need it!!

Some great stuff here and keep it coming!

i of course too will help if i can in anyway with contributing any experiences etc though how i am varies from day to day at the moment [so therefore may my ability to contribute or contribute usefully!] and also dont want to tread on anyones toes like the CT who seem to be doing a brill job along with everyone else!

Well done everyone.

Take care.

*pounces on the part in bold*
Nuuuuuuu. Nono.

I'm glad that you think we're doing a good job =D But honestly, you're not treading on anybody's toes. We wouldn't've made the threads asking for your input if we didn't want it or were going to take it on board - also it's a community team. As in, the community. *licks community*. And this is totally a voluntary thing (if we can go ahead with it) so it's all in your own time if you want to contribute.

Re: information about meds and illnesses - that's a kind of difficult topic. I think a brief explanation of different kinds of illnesses would be okay. But I'm not a mod. I don't want to start taking over things or getting RYL in trouble. And stuff. Soo... I'm going to report myself and see what a mod says =]

Yeah, that needs to be written carefully and there needs to be some exclaimer saying the advice doesnt replace seeing a doctor (so we dont get sued).

Maybe some of the first aid advisors could help?

What information would be in this sticky?

And how would it be divided up?

Each med with its own information, or the meds in their classifications with basic information on that class of drug?

Sorry, school has made me really realize how complicated this all is. Even within a family of drugs, each drug will have its own drug interactions, adverse reactions, side effects, etc. And there are so many drugs out there, it's made me curious.

So just wondering how this would be done. :)

Thank you for replying so quickly, Shan :)

Erm. For ease of 'creating' the thread and making it easier to read - I thought maybe where we outline some of the most common mental illnesses in its' section of the information package sticky, we could do a few sentences/short paragraph on the drugs used for it?

Sort of like, for the bit on depression:

If you know what I mean.

Or we could do a completely seperate section in the pack outlining the most commonly prescribed medication.

What does everyone else think?

Good idea!:)

Yeah I think that's a good idea, doing something on the most commonly prescribed meds and general side-effects- e.g. a list of most common side-effects for SSRI anti-depressants.
Of course everyone has different experiences with meds but for ease on making the threads I think sticking to the most common stuff is best.
If you have threads for each seperate illness, then the meds info could be within that, so that people with, for example, Bipolar, don't have to scroll all the way through info on meds for Unipolar depression/schizophrenia etc.

I'd be happy to contribute to things if you want too with stuff about depression as I have a lot of experience which could help people?

xxxx

*spams thread*

I think what we're hoping for is a 'unified' look among the forums with Information Packages. Like the one about suicidal feelings in Serious Discussion and Support, and the one about self harm in Self-Injury Discussion and Support.

So getting lots of information together, making it into several posts and doing a bumper information thread with everything you need to know in it! Although it will be broken up so that you can click a link in the main post to take you to information for say, C-PTSD rather than scrolling all the way through to get what you want. Sound okay?

Mm like the christmas support ideas thing was? Like a thread with each subject given its own post linked back to in the first post?

Meds could be given their own post within the sticky. Just basic info though like:

Antidepressants

SSRIs
The most common Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are:
Prozac / Fluoxetine
(Info, side effects)

Citalopram / Celexa
(Info, side effects)

Etc etc

Tricyclics
Tricyclic antidepressants are a class of antidepressants first used back in the 50s. They are named because of the molecular structure of the drugs.

The most common tricyclics are:
Amitriptyline / Elavil
(Info, side effects)

etc

MAOIs
Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs) are...

The most common MAOIs are:

Antipsychotics.

Antipsychotics are split into two categories- Typical and Atypical.

Typical Antipsychotics.
Typical Antipsychotics are the first generation (or the older) antipsychotics, generally with more side effects.

The most common typical antipsychotics are:
Chlorpromazine / Largactil
(Info, side effects)

Haloperidol / Haldol
(Info, side effects)

etc etc