Introducing the Community Leader Program and a Community Leader

[MH Community Mgr]

Hi,

As MedHelp has grown in both number of members and the number of communities we have, the needs of these communities has also grown. Our Pregnancy communities would like to see different features than our Breast Cancer community. Out of this need, we came up with the Community Leader program.

A Community Leader will be a MedHelp member who will act like an ambassador to MedHelp, helping to communicate the feedback from the community as well as help us communicate back to the community from MedHelp. When we launch new features, like the recent Mood Tracker, they will be able to help out with any questions. In addition to helping MedHelp, they will also be working with their community to help it grow, by welcoming new members, bringing up suggestions, etc. As always, anyone is still welcome to contact MedHelp directly. We love hearing from our members and it's a big part of what has made the site what it is today.

One thing to note, Community Leaders, will not be replacing the MedHelp moderators currently monitoring the site, however, the Leaders will be able to help if there is an issue and work with our moderators to address it. The Leaders are not working for MedHelp, they are still members, but ones that have taken on some added responsibility.

We're extremely excited about this program, and we're pleased to announce Healingwell62 as our first Community Leader for the Breast Cancer Community.  Healingwell62 has significant Breast Cancer experience and will be able to lend support and answer questions for all of our members.

We're looking forward to working with her and you, to continue improving the experience in this community.

Cheryl
MedHelp Community Mgr

[ILADVOCATE]

I do notice as it expands in membership the potential increasing need for a community leader in the schizophrenia forum. Thanks.

[katarina777]

I am a little concerned about the breast cancer 3&4 group, and am thinking it may be better to eliminate it altogether. People who would go there would in this case post their questions on the general bc forum, the one where healingwell is the community leader.

These are my primary reasons.

Many more posts than not remain unanswered, and I feel and know that this is very hurtful to the person who posted their question.

I think the reason for questions not being answered is that 'we' feel we don't know how to help people sicker than ourselves.
The sicker questions also scare us, and we are not as familiar with both 'knowledge' and 'experience'.

In the recent several, or more than several days, our 'usually appearing doctors', such as Dr. Paul, have disappeared and they have moved to help out with other forums. (I understand that these great doctors are not employed by MedHelp.

Additionally, this forum has become stagnated, and every time I visit there, I feel badly. (I understand this is not a very specific complaint, but how we feel matters a great deal.)

I think that it would be better for people to have no place that they feel belongs to them, or is appropriate for their questions, than having them feel hopeful of receiving help and then being ignored.

Kat

[web_lady]

Congrats! You were so kind, welcoming and helpful to me when I joined. I know you will continue to be a source of light for those of us who can sometimes feel lost in the dark.

Bless you!