Safeguarding Policy

Safeguarding Policy

Purpose
Help Minds Heal is a peer-support community. This safeguarding policy explains how we respond to situations involving risk of harm, vulnerable users, and serious safety concerns. It supports a safe environment while recognising that we are not a crisis or medical service.

What this Service is (and is not)
Help Minds Heal is not a substitute for professional medical advice, therapy, emergency services, or crisis intervention. We encourage users to seek qualified help for urgent or serious situations.

Safeguarding concerns we take seriously
We prioritise action on content or behaviour involving: threats of violence, credible risk of self-harm or suicide, encouragement of self-harm or eating disorder behaviours, exploitation or grooming, harassment or stalking, doxxing or exposure of personal information, extremist content, and any content suggesting immediate danger.

How we respond
Where safeguarding concerns arise, we may take protective action such as removing or restricting content, locking threads, placing an account under moderation, temporarily suspending or banning an account, and signposting to appropriate support resources. We aim to respond proportionately and prioritise situations that suggest immediate risk.

Emergency and imminent risk
If a post indicates an immediate risk of harm to self or others, we may intervene quickly by restricting visibility of content and providing signposting. If we believe there is a genuine and immediate threat to life or serious harm, we may consider escalation to relevant authorities where lawful and necessary.

Self-harm and suicide content
Support-seeking posts are permitted when shared responsibly. Content that encourages, instructs, glorifies, or pressures others toward self-harm is not permitted and may be removed. We may add moderator guidance, close threads, or direct users to professional support where appropriate.

Personal information and privacy
Users must not share private personal information about themselves or others in a way that creates risk. Doxxing, threats to expose private details, and sharing identifying information about third parties are not permitted and may result in immediate action.

Adults only and children
The Service is intended for users aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly permit children to use the Service. If we identify an under-18 account, we may remove it and take steps to reduce further access.

Moderator wellbeing
Safeguarding work can be emotionally demanding. Moderators are encouraged to take breaks, escalate difficult cases internally, and avoid engaging beyond what is necessary for safety and enforcement.

Reporting safeguarding concerns
Users should report safeguarding concerns using the report tools or by contacting the moderation team. Where possible, include links, screenshots, and a clear description of what is concerning.

Record keeping
We may keep internal records of safeguarding-related reports and actions to ensure consistency, protect users, and improve our response over time.

Updates
This policy may be updated from time to time. Significant changes may be communicated to users where reasonable.