#island rules

Hey everyone, it’s Megs.  I apologize for breaking character, but some things have come to my attention and I don’t think responding via the island is appropriate.  

One of the greatest things about the Supernatural fandom is that we are a family.  Yes we have our squabbles, but for the most part, we are there for each other and supportive.  All us admins here on the island care about you.  We want to be here for you and we want you all to be ok, but this is a friendly reminder that we are a roleplaying blog. We are NOT able to provide you with mental health support and should not be put in the position to respond to significant mental health issues.  

  We are not trained to provide this support

No one providing this support should be an island (literally or figuratively). If you are a minor, they should be connected with parents/guardians and other service providers and whether they work with kids or adults they should also have supervisors (and those supervisors have supervisors) so it’s never one person solely responsible for the life of another.

If we EVER missed an Ask where someone said they were going to kill themselves, hurt themselves, or hurt someone else, and they did, we would be devastated.  Again, we care about you all.  We want to be here for you, but if you expect us to be here and we cannot be (or tumblr eats our responses for the 5th time in a row), we do not want to let you down.   

We also do not want to make a situation worse because we do not have the background to adequately handle something.  

Also, moving forward, there will be a new island rule:  if you disclose you are being hurt or harmed by anyone, we will not be answering the Ask as part of the island but as a concerned adult.   We will be (privately) asking your age, and if you are a minor, your name and where you live.  

Where I live, these groups of people are considered mandated reporters for minors and BY LAW we are required to report this: health care providers (any and all folks from your dentist, to the guy that cracks your bones, right down to the admin intern responsible for nothing more than stocking the room at your doctor’s office), anyone employed by a school district or private school, anyone working for state human services organizations, camp staff, childcare workers, church staff, mental health workers, police officers, probation officers, and social workers.

 I also want to point out, it’s pretty easy to tell which one of y’all are under 18 and which of you are older, and we will call you out on it because we want to make sure everyone is SAFE and OK because THAT’S WHAT FAMILY DOES.