It’s been about six weeks since the inaugural Let’s Talk Hope conference here in Delta. It was a wonderful day, shared by almost 140 people, all of whom gathered to talk about mental health, hope and community.
One of my passions, both as a mental health professional and as someone who deals with a mental health issue, is to promote further conversation using a variety of methods. One day is great, but how do we engage on a continuous basis with such an important topic?
When we planned the day, we wanted to get the discussion going before people showed up to the event. We reached out to our friends at Civil Space and their parent company, Domain7, to see if they could help. As a tech geek myself, I’m interested in how technology can intersect with our offline conversations and promote positive dialogue.
The folks at Civil Space and Domain7 responded immediately, donating their platform to our cause and showing their commitment to helping this important discussion take place in Delta.
We set up the platform and opened questions ahead of the conference. We asked questions such as, “What are you noticing about mental health where you live or work?” and “What do you believe is a major contributor to mental health issues today?” We did a live Q&A at the conference with participants, and again used the Civil Space platform to follow up on the questions, one of which was, “How do you know if someone is struggling with mental health if they don’t tell you?”
One of the great things about this platform is that it uses artificial intelligence, provided by Google, to moderate the discussion in the comments. One of my fears in opening up an online discussion on mental health was that the discussion wouldn’t be able to remain civil, and would get heated, and possibly very negative as sometimes people have a hard time being respectful online. The integration of Google’s AI moderates the discussion, and actually highlights for users when their intent and tone may need some revision to be helpful and received well.
What did we learn about integrating online discussion with offline experiences? We learned that people are willing to engage, and often will provide details that they may not provide in person, particularly in a large group. Vulnerability is a difficult thing, and being able to do so using only a pseudonym as a username provides some freedom.
We learned that using polls and specific questions can help us gather statistics and understand trends in the community. We learned that having both pre-canned questions and the freedom of open comments can provide richness to the dialogue.
On a number of occasions, people answered our questions and then expanded in the comments and then we could respond and continue the discussion and bring others into it.
We also learned that technology is something some people still struggle with and aren’t comfortable with, validating that multiple streams of information gathering and sharing is very important. It validates the utility in continuing to communicate via email lists, social media, smaller in-person events and platforms such as Civil Space throughout the year.
As we highlighted at the conference, the solution to mental health is connection. The more ways we can effectively create connection, the better off we all will be, and the more support people with mental health struggles will have.
Delta is a small, tight-knit community. The response to our first Let’s Talk Hope conference was inspiring. We’re all still learning what the community needs, and how to find the support needed. Let’s keep the dialogue going in person and online.
If you have ideas, we want to hear them. Reach out to any of us at Alongside You, 140 Sports or National Hope Talks with your ideas, comments or otherwise.
If we come together as a community, we’ll find connection. If we find connection, we’ll find hope. If we have hope, we can do something powerful with mental health.
Andrew Neufeld is executive director of Alongside You in Ladner
