Shapes and Sounds
Community Check-In
Group Guidelines.

These Group Guidelines have been designed to ensure your safety and the safety of others who participate in the Community Check-Ins. 

By joining the Community Check-Ins, you are agreeing to abide by these Group Guidelines and understand that Shapes and Sounds will ensure that all participants adhere to these Group Guidelines.

These Group Guidelines may change at any point to better serve our community and will be shared with you if and when significant changes are made.

This is not a crisis support group.

• • Do not post on this group discussion if you are experiencing a crisis or worried about your safety. Instead, please call 000 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
  • Do not ask any other members to call these services for you.
  • Do not ask for direct advice for any mental health concerns from other members
  • Do not provide any direct advice to other members. Instead, email [email protected] with the nature of your concern within 24 hours of any incidents occurring.
• Privacy is essential.
  • An overarching rule is that what gets shared here, stays here UNLESS you specifically gain permission from another member to share their ideas/story.
  • Protect your own privacy by using a nickname or remaining anonymous during the whole session. 
  • Don’t share personal information - please refrain from sharing your social media details/ work details/promoting your work etc 
  • This is an online public space - we encourage participants to refrain from sharing identifying information including email, social media links or handles, specific locations such as suburbs, full names, or phone numbers. Please don’t ask for other participants contact details or attempt to contact them outside of the Check-in.
  • Participants are encouraged not to contact people from the group privately. If you do choose to contact others privately outside of the group discussions, Shapes and Sounds will not get involved in any personal matters between participants.

• Understand that we are all at different stages of our mental health journeys.
  • Be empathic, patient and respectful in all your communication with other members.
  • If and when someone shares something that feels ignorant or rude, work to communicate your frustrations or concerns in a way that does not attack the other individual. We are all here to learn.
  • Use language like, “I feel like I might not be understanding what you’re saying, could you explain a little further?”

• Please share appropriately.
  • Make sure what you are sharing is relevant to what the group is discussing
  • Please do not share details around self harm, suicide methods, methods to lose weight, any kind of abuse or medication (there is a zero tolerance policy for bigotry)
  • Provide soft content warnings when discussing sensitive content matter including but not excluded to: racism/homophobia etc), drug and alcohol, disordered eating, self harm/suicide) 
  • Be respectful to others and contribute to a non-judgemental stance from all group members. Everyone has different immediate needs & concerns! 

• No derogatory language.
  • Please use respectful language such as being mindful of boundaries, and being gender-inclusive and culturally-appropriate. We encourage you to please share first name or nickname, pronouns and country you are joining from. 
  • Do not use language that actively targets, discriminates or dehumanises an individual or a group of people. This includes being mindful of the language you use to describe white people.
  • Derogatory language does not cover the use of swear words that help you to illustrate how you are feeling.

• Keep the conversation about our Asian Australian mental health and wellbeing community
  • No marketing posts, no advertising, no offering of services/products.

• No recruitment of new clients, patients or customers.
  • No marketing posts, no advertising, no offering of services/products.
  • No spin-off groups or services can emerge from the Check-Ins.
• Your comments in the chat are moderated
  • This means that we are unable to reply to every single comment in the chat - we encourage you to share within the group space.
  • We reserve the right to delete, remove, or contact you regarding any of the comments that you share that we deem inappropriate.
  • If you find any post/comment concerning, please take a screenshot and email us at [email protected] and we will reply within 2 business days.