Welcome to the System Speak Community!
Here are a few things that make our community special:
This is just like any other social media platform: you can share from your own timeline or in groups; you can have threaded conversations; and you can direct message!
We've got polls, prompts, posts, and questions that can bring more people into conversation in a safe space that's all our own.
You can label posts with topics to help others find information, or search for topics you are specifically interested in if that's helpful.
You can save posts to find them later.
We will be having virtual meetings, group events, and podcast meetups! PLEASE USE YOUR WEB BROWSER OR CHROME TO REGISTER FOR MEETINGS AND CLASSES. You can use the app for everything else!
We will also be sharing some NerdTown trainings and doing some other great webinars and live feeds!
In other words, we've chosen a spot designed to grow with us over time.
WE ARE SO STINKING EXCITED! Welcome to the community!
Here are a few things to know as you get started:
Make Things Friendlier –– Add Your Photo
Add a profile photo of your beautiful face. When we can't be together in person, photos make a huge difference. Also, add your mini-bio or, better yet, a quick introduction for new people. You can do this by choosing Edit on your Profile.
Adjust Your Notifications
Adjust the notifications you receive over email or mobile at any time. To tweak them, click on your face in the upper right hand corner, choose Your Settings, and click Notifications. Adjust accordingly. Same for sounds.
Add Posts, Articles, Polls, Photos, and Questions
When you click into the main box on the Home screen, you'll get different options from adding a post to uploading a photo, embedding a video via a link, sharing a link or a file, or creating a poll.
There are three different kinds of polls, all of which are awesome––multiple choice, hot/cold (great for how you and other members feel about something), and percentage of time or resources.
If you want to add a gif, do it by adding a photo. System Speak doesn't have a gif keyboard just quite yet.
Even Better Than Posting? Comment, Reply, and Contribute to Other People's Posts and Questions
Nothing is lonelier than a post without comments or cheers, or a poll that is flailing in the wind.
Go ahead. Share your answer, say hey, or if you're in a hurry, click the cheer button.
Use Topics
You'll be prompted to add your posts to a Topic. Go for it. They are here to help us keep things a bit organized. If you have recommendations for other Topics for us to add, let us know in the comments below.
Get the App on your Phone
To get the iOS or Android app, go to Your Settings, and text yourself the app. Alternatively, download the Mighty Networks app from the Apple App or Google Play Stores, search for System Speak, and sign in again. PLEASE USE YOUR WEB BROWSER OR CHROME TO REGISTER FOR MEETINGS AND CLASSES, but everything else works on the app.
Before You Go –– Help Us Keep This Place Special
We're creating something special with System Speak. Please share generously, be quick to support other members, and resist the temptation to troll, self-promote, or judge. We're doing something different here.
For research about mutual peer support groups and their benefits and cautions (not specific to this community), please see the following:
68% of people found online peer support beneficial
Peer support can be associated with positive effects on measures of hope, recovery and empowerment.
"Peer support includes support or services provided to people with mental health problems by other people who have experienced mental health problems themselves [1]. Organised peer support is designed to build upon naturally occurring support among people with mental health problems. Peer support has been proposed as a way to promote recovery for anyone who has experienced mental ill health, irrespective of diagnosis [2]. For example, it may promote self-efficacy and hope through sharing experiential knowledge and through modelling recovery and coping strategies [3]. This is consistent with psychological theories of change: peers? social proximity to the people they are supporting may enhance their value as pro-social models [4] and promote motivation to achieve recovery by providing an upward social comparison [5]. The potential for recipients of peer support to also provide reciprocal support, explicit in mutual support groups and implicit in peer relationships generally, may be empowering and of therapeutic value. Peer support workers may also be able to deliver specific interventions that could be provided by clinicians. However, peer support is explicitly not based on psychiatric models of illness [2]. Access to peer support for people with severe mental health problems has been widely advocated internationally by service user researchers [6-8] and by professional organizations [9-11]. Provision of peer support is identified as a fidelity requirement for recovery-orientated services [12], and it is commonly promoted in recovery literature [13, 14]. The provision of peer support as part of community mental health services is increasingly common.