Keeping users experiencing a suicidal crisis safe online: Current text-based practices of professional online mental health forum moderators

Individuals in a heightened state of suicidal desire often utilize online mental health forums for support. What we know about support comes predominately from forum-user research and their experiences and perspectives. Little research has considered the supportive role professional moderators’ play in such situations, with no research exploring how professional moderators keep forum-users safe online. The aim of this study was to explore the in-situ text-based practices that professional moderators employ when they are keeping forum-users safe online. Using Conversation Analysis, 34 publicly available forum posts and corresponding emails between forum-users in a heightened state of suicidal desire (at-risk users), non-suicidal forum-users, and professional moderators were analyzed. Results indicate that professional moderators and forum-users work alongside each other to keep at-risk users safe online. They do this by moderators aligning to risk presentations with forum-users affiliating to at-risk users relational needs. Previous research found professional moderators wanted to use more of their counselling skills in such situations. However, based on the findings of this study moderators do not need to do more. Their current practices appear to keep forum-users safe at that moment when they are most at risk. These practices perhaps go unrecognized as skillful as they draw upon the intersubjectivity of safety rather than on individual user risk. Future research needs to examine the safety interactions that occur between forum-users and moderators to enable a better understanding of online spaces as suicide prevention places.