(22 May 2014, 2:57 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Whilst having been through bouts of depression and ptsd AND having experience of support/guidance type work - no-one that I am aware of on here (could be wrong) is a specialist or expert in the subject.
If providing a shoulder to cry on, (for those willing to open up on things) is all you are wanting - then I am sure many will consider it.
The flip side (and possible problem), is the offering of advice - when we aren't qualified or experienced enough to provide it.
What you or I may think is good, solid and reliable advice, could end up causing issues into the future for the person who has opened up.
Hopefully I am not speaking out of turn here, but judging his comments, GTomlinson was obviously affected by events on the Tyne Bridge last month.
Seeing the photo on the forum - could work one of two ways. I certainly wouldn't want to see a visual image of the incident I was witness to (I have enough of those with flashbacks), but do read newspaper articles of the event online.
If I was to turn round and try and advise GTomlinson on what to do, who knows what could happen - particularly as I don't know him, his background or what makes him tick.
That is the danger.
I have qualifications in Youth Work and Advice and Guidance, while I believe in a good place to be able to advice, I agree with what you say, my advice could be very different to yours and may not be taken very well...
The idea was not really to provide a shoulder to cry on, but somewhere people can come to meet like minded people and to discuss the various mental health problems, depression, bullying, with advice mostly being limited by pointing them in the right direction, i.e. Mind, Samaritans, Centrepoint etc...
Anyway, I may scrap the idea and look to form a football forum in the future, just see how things pan out over time