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🛡️ Our new Confidentiality Policy (explained)

TheMix

Greetings, weary travellers. 🧙‍♂️ This will be an info-packed post, so grab a drink and put some music on or something before settling in to read. It's information you do need to know!

Before I get into it, some background context about The Mix's merger with MHI.

A side-effect of this merger is that The Mix and Shout are now operating under a single Confidentiality Policy. That means the Confidentiality Policy we use in this community has changed.

What is a Confidentiality Policy?
Our Confidentiality Policy explains when we keep your information confidential within The Mix, and when we might decide to tell another agency (e.g. the police or social services) what you have shared with us. While there is a legal duty of care to the users of our service,The Mix ultimately does this to keep you (our service users), volunteers, staff and at times the wider members of the public safe.

What is staying the same?
Just like before, we will continue to inform emergency services if we believe you are at immediate risk of harm, or that you might harm somebody else.

This includes:

if you have a plan to end your life in the immediate future
If you have hurt yourself in a way that puts your life at risk
if you are being abused, seriously hurt or affected by poor practice by somebody in a position of trust who have contact with other young people or can block safeguarding processes (e.g. a teacher, faith leader, or medical professional)
if you have taken more than the prescribed dosage of a medication

What's changed?
Here's the short version, but I've included more details down below.

our Confidentiality Policy now treats adults (18+) and minors (under 18's) slightly differently
the Mix will increase things it might report to other services when there’s no immediate harm or risk but there is a possible long term impact.

Further details ⬇️

How will adults (18+) and minors (under 18's) be treated differently?
Our new Confidentiality Policy contains extra protections for minors and 'adults at risk of harm'.

An adult at risk of harm is someone aged 18+ with additional support or care needs and at risk of harm, and because of those support or care needs in this situation they can’t protect themselves. This will change from situation to situation.

What counts as a possible long term impact?
There are things that we don't need to send you immediate help for, but that other services might need to know about in order to keep you safe in the long term.

Here are some examples:

Those under 18 who intend to end their life in the next 30 days
ongoing abuse of an under 18 or adult at risk of harm.
coercive or abusive sexual abuse with or between under 18 or adult at risk of harm
Under 18s who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness
if someone under 16 is pregnant and medical professionals have not been informed
Under 18 with caring responsibilities where they is or could be a long term negative impact on them or the person they are caring for.

There are some situations not mentioned here that apply to children aged 12 and under (and you must be 13 on your profile in order to join this community).

Who might The Mix speak to?
This will depend greatly on the situation. Depending on the circumstances, it could be:

101 (non-emergency police line)
Your social worker
Someone else directly involved in your care (like a nurse practioner)

It might also be someone not listed here.

If you no longer want to use The Mix, where can you go?
You might read this policy and decide that The Mix Community is no longer the right space for you. That's okay - part of why we're transparent about this is so you can make that choice.

We don't want you to be isolated and there is more support out there, so here are some alternative support options you may want to consider.

--

If we report anything you share with us, we will always inform you as soon as we can if we have a way to contact you.

Where possible, we will also work with you and involve you in that decision.

You will also be able to ask us any questions about why we reported your situation, what details we shared, and who we shared them with. We will happily share that information with you.

FAQ ⬇️

Why do you have to report things that are not an emergency?
To keep you (our community members), volunteers, staff, and at times members of the wider public safe.

Does this mean The Mix will be more likely to report a situation?
The Mix is always balancing the importance of reporting to keep people safe against respecting your confidentiality. We will keep doing this and looking at each case individually.

Is your policy the same as Shout's now?
Yes, Shout and The Mix now operate under one policy. We will also be sharing information between the two services.

Does this only apply to things posted after the merger?
Yes, that's correct.

There are a couple of reasons for that. 1) there's simply no way we could go through old posts, and 2) the information and safeguarding risk presented in old posts would be out of date.

When we're conducting risk assessments, we need the information we're using to be new and current for it to be a useful process for the person involved.

What happens when it’s not an emergency? Will it just take a service longer to come out?
So, there are a huge number of possibilities and it depends on the services involved. The honest answer is we don't know - and they may not tell us what they decide to do.

Our role in that situation is to pass the information on to the services involved, and they don't always keep us informed on what decisions they make with that information.

It might be that the police just keep that information on file in case more reports come in in the future, it may be that someone reaches out to you (like your social worker), it may be that someone comes out to you in person. I realise that's quite vague, though!

The key thing is that we'll always be transparent about our actions with you, and we'll communicate any information we have at the time.

Are there any situations that apply to adults?
If someone is an adult (not an adult at risk of harm) we will only pass information to a different service if we believe there is an immediate risk to life. Nothing has changed there.

--

If you have any questions about this, feel free to ask below.

If you prefer, you can also drop @TheMix a DM or send an email to community@mhiuk.org.

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Comments

Dancer

I have the doughnuts and the orange tango now I'm ready and rolling to read it.

River

How come you have to report non emergency stuff?

JustV

Dancer wrote: »

I have the doughnuts and the orange tango now I'm ready and rolling to read it.

This is the right way to do it

JustV

Rose113 wrote: »

How come you have to report non emergency stuff?

Mostly legal reasons @Rose113 - there's some new legislation coming into effect now which puts more responsibility on institutions (like us) to report more safeguarding concerns.

The field of safeguarding has also moved on quite a bit from where our confidentiality was previously, so there's some wider change in our sector too.

Past User

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River

@JustV can I message the inbox a question about where this stands in regards to I’ve told on here before this?

JustV

Rose113 wrote: »

@JustV can I message the inbox a question about where this stands in regards to I’ve told on here before this?

Of course

Faolan

Fair enough but does this count as everything shared with you after the merger?🤣

JustV

Chloe234 wrote: »

Does this mean you're gonna break confidentiality a lot more lightly? I know people have said SHOUT does is lightly so is this the same for you guys?

Not necessarily. It's a funny one - there will probably be more situations where we escalate something as a non-emergency, but less situations where we escalate as an emergency.

So the total number of reports we make will likely go up, but the number of emergencies will go down.

JustV

JustV wrote: »

Chloe234 wrote: »

Does this mean you're gonna break confidentiality a lot more lightly? I know people have said SHOUT does is lightly so is this the same for you guys?

Not necessarily. It's a funny one - there will probably be more situations where we escalate something as a non-emergency, but less situations where we escalate as an emergency.

So the total number of reports we make will likely go up, but the number of emergencies will go down.

But also Shout and The Mix will operate in the same way - so yes to your second question.

JustV

Faolan wrote: »

Fair enough but does this count as everything shared with you after the merger?🤣

Trust you to ask the difficult question @Faolan

Let me check on this and get back to you - good question!

Faolan

Thanks V, been waiting for this post so plenty time to think up a tricky question 😂

Past User

No formatter is installed for the format not-found

JustV

Chloe234 wrote: »

JustV wrote: »

Chloe234 wrote: »

Does this mean you're gonna break confidentiality a lot more lightly? I know people have said SHOUT does is lightly so is this the same for you guys?

Not necessarily. It's a funny one - there will probably be more situations where we escalate something as a non-emergency, but less situations where we escalate as an emergency.

So the total number of reports we make will likely go up, but the number of emergencies will go down.

What would happen in a non emergency though? Will it just take police longer to come out

Great question @Chloe234.

So, there are a huge number of possibilities and it depends on the services involved. The honest answer is we don't know - and they may not tell us what they decide to do.

Our role in that situation is to pass the information on to the services involved, and they don't always keep us informed on what decisions they make with that information.

It might be that the police just keep that information on file in case more reports come in in the future, it may be that someone reaches out to you (like your social worker), it may be that someone comes out to you in person. I realise that's quite vague, though!

The key thing I suppose is that we'll always be transparent about our actions with you, and we'll communicate any information we have at the time.

Lucy_21

Is this why posts need approval now?

Past User

No formatter is installed for the format not-found

ebyrne556

Yeah they do sometimes they go into spam by accident but normally as Mods we sort it out

JustV

ebyrne556 wrote: »

Yeah they do sometimes they go into spam by accident but normally as Mods we sort it out

For sure ^

So not all posts require approval, but sometimes posts will get sent to our moderation and spam filters for review. It's quite rare though to be fair.

JustV

JustV wrote: »

Faolan wrote: »

Fair enough but does this count as everything shared with you after the merger?🤣

Trust you to ask the difficult question @Faolan

Let me check on this and get back to you - good question!

In answer to this: yes, that's correct - this only applies to things shared post-merger.

There are a couple of reasons for that. 1) there's simply no way we could go through old posts, and 2) the information and risk level in old posts would likely be out of date.

When we're conducting risk assessments, we need the information we're going off to be new and current in order for that to be a useful process for the person involved.

independent_

My only question is - most of the non emergency situations above apply to minors.

As an adult it would be useful for me (and maybe others) to know if there’s any non emergency situations that may apply to us? I don’t see any up there, but as someone with a bit of knowledge of how shout operate their policy, I know it’s different.

A less broad definition of adult at risk would also be useful to know. As someone with a purely physical disability and no other support needs would be useful to know if i have to be careful now.

Edit: actually, I am going to drop a PM over with more questions as it goes into a few more of the specifics of the shout policy, which may be confidential in and of itself

but these are the ones I figure others may be curious about.

JustV

independent_ wrote: »

My only question is - most of the non emergency situations above apply to minors.

As an adult it would be useful for me (and maybe others) to know if there’s any non emergency situations that may apply to us? I don’t see any up there, but as someone with a bit of knowledge of how shout operate their policy, I know it’s different.

Great question @independent_

If someone is an adult (not an adult at risk of harm) there are no instances where we would escalate something as a non-emergency. The only time we weigh in with that age group is when there is an immediate threat to life involved - a bit like our old policy.

independent_ wrote: »

A less broad definition of adult at risk would also be useful to know. As someone with a purely physical disability and no other support needs would be useful to know if i have to be careful now..

So the broad definition is someone aged 18+ with additional support needs that make it harder for them to protect themselves against harm or danger.

Disabilities are definitely one thing that could qualify someone as 'at risk of harm' but that's not a universal rule. We take it case-by-case so we can assess whether someone's disability is actually preventing them from accessing the support they need (which may not be true). If we know someone has a disability but we still believe they're able to protect themselves against whatever danger or harm might be present, we may decide we don't need to weigh in.

I hope that helps but I know it's still not super specific! Always happy to go into more detail over DM, particularly if you have questions specific to your situation.

Faolan

I’ve another question, no rush to get back to me on this because I know how busy ye all are.

I’ve noticed recently that sometimes people share worrying details but then end it by saying “I’m safe”. It got me curious, does this “im safe” declaration act as the ultimate seal of confidentiality, or do you still take what they’ve said into account for risk assessments?

Like, If what someone says raises serious concern, does their “I’m safe” reassurance ever take a back seat to the context of their post/message?

shannon_164

Faolan wrote: »

I’ve another question, no rush to get back to me on this because I know how busy ye all are.

I’ve noticed recently that sometimes people share worrying details but then end it by saying “I’m safe”. It got me curious, does this “im safe” declaration act as the ultimate seal of confidentiality, or do you still take what they’ve said into account for risk assessments?

Like, If what someone says raises serious concern, does their “I’m safe” reassurance ever take a back seat to the context of their post/message?

hey @Faolan ! im not entirely sure if the confidentially policy for the mix is the exact same as shout but thought i would just respond anyways in case:)

TW // mentions of abuse & suicidal thoughts

from my experience as a volunteer with shout, if a disclosure is made - such as a child being abused - we are obligated to act on it, even if the person later assures us that they are safe, once a disclosure has been made and the decision to report is confirmed, we will proceed to notify the appropriate parties as a precaution. the only exception to this is in cases where, for example, someone expresses suicidal thoughts but then confirms they feel safe. in such situations, if the risk assessment does not meet all four criteria necessary to breach confidentiality, we will respect the individual’s assurance of safety and maintain confidentiality.

i apologise if that’s badly explained, and for not being 100% sure whether the mix have the same policy or not but i would imagine it’s pretty similar to shout if not the same due to the merger!

River

The staff just tell us to put “I’m safe” when talking about worrying topics

Faolan

Thanks for sharing this @shannonxg_ , it’s kind of a relief to hear that yous still fire ahead with a risk assessment. Sometimes the “I’m safe” just doesn’t feel like enough when people share all the hurt they’re going through. I know that you can feel suicidal and still have no intentions of doing anything but sometimes it feels all very real and like people are say it because they’re afraid of emergency services being called. Idk if I make sense 😂

The staff just tell us to put “I’m safe” when talking about worrying topics

I didn’t know that @Rose113 ! It always makes me feel a bit uneasy, I guess because I didn’t know if the staff took it as gospel. Hopefully they don’t.

shannon_164

@Faolan that makes so much sense!! if there is anything at all that is indicating someone feeling suicidal then there will be the risk assessment completed or if there is any indication of abuse, self harm etc we’ll talk more about it and the supervisor will work with safeguarding to figure out what steps to take!

JustV

Just hopping in here to say @shannonxg_ is right

To answer your initial question @Faolan, "I'm safe" doesn't work as a catch-all "don't worry about me" message - context and how someone is presenting is always considered. We generally trust members of this community with their own safety, so if someone tells us they feel safe, we believe that unless they've shared something else that directly contradicts it.

Some people may be in crisis and choose not tell us (or tell us they're safe when they're not), and that's something we accept as part of the process. One of the reasons we try to be transparent about how safeguarding and confidentiality work here is so people can see where our boundaries are, then decide how much they want to share and what would be most helpful for them.

If someone's safety is unclear, staff might decide to have a private conversation with them to find out more information. We might also explore what their version of 'safe' looks like, what might move them to that place of safety, and share other support options.

JustV

Rose113 wrote: »

The staff just tell us to put “I’m safe” when talking about worrying topics

This is true - if your post raises questions about your safety, but you are safe, saying that is helpful because it stops people reading into your post in ways they don't need to.

Because 'safe' means different things to different people, sometimes a little more information can be helpful for the community as well. For example, "I'm having a lot of suicidal thoughts right now, and I'm not planning to act on them but I don't feel okay."