Community Guidelines for Bone Health and Osteoporosis UK

[ROSModerator]

We've updated our Community Guidelines for Bone Health and Osteoporosis UK.

We’re here to help create a welcoming and safe space for you to share your experiences, and we hope you’ll connect and find support with other people who might have been through a similar situation. Whether you’re living with osteoporosis, supporting someone, or just want to find out more about bone health.

Why we have we updated our guidelines?

Here at the Royal Osteoporosis Society, we want to grow our community to support more people than ever before. So we’ve reviewed our community guidelines to help make sure the Bone Health and Osteoporosis UK forum is a safe and welcoming space for everyone.

These guidelines will make it easier for the community to be a place where you can share your experiences and provide a balanced view in a safe, encouraging environment. We’ve introduced guidance on sharing health information, medical advice and staying safe; checked to make sure it’s best practice for a health charity forum.

Please take a look at our updated community guidelines below:

Community Guidelines

These Community Guidelines aim to create and maintaining a safe and supportive community for all our members.

• Be relevant and appropriate: This community should not be used to give or seek medical advice, or replace the relationship between you and your healthcare professionals. We recognise posts may discuss concerns and express personal views but please don’t give medical advice telling people what they should do.

• Be cautious : Information from the community is based on personal experience and may not be based on the latest research available.

• Be kind: This is a peer-to-peer support network which is moderated by us, this is a place to share your story and connect with others. We ask you to be kind, supportive, respectful, and understanding of one another including those moderating.

• Be open: This community is a place of support; you will hear other experiences that may not align with yours. Thoughts, feelings and opinions can be shared.

• Be safe: If you see something you’re concerned about, use the reporting button to flag it to the Health Unlocked moderation team. Don’t include personal information such as images clearly displaying your face, full names, phone numbers, locations, postal or email addresses; or encourage the sharing of such details. This community is not a crisis service, we don’t guarantee seeing all posts.

• Don’t: Troll other people, post abuse, and use inflammatory or derogatory language or comments to or about others (including healthcare professionals or specific healthcare providers)

• Don't: Promote untrusted sources of information, or share commercial, sales, fundraising or spam content

For more detail explaining what we’ll moderate and why please see our Terms and Conditions below.

Our charity, the Royal Osteoporosis Society, are here to help you live well with osteoporosis and look after your bones. Our website has information and support, including osteoporosis drug treatments, exercise, diet and other lifestyle topics to help you better understand and manage your bone health. All our information is checked by clinical experts in the field.

If you have any clinical questions or concerns related to osteoporosis and would like to speak with on of our friendly Specialist Osteoporosis Nurses on our free Helpline 0808 800 0035 or [e-mail], they can offer tailored information.

• Learn more about Bone Health and Osteoporosis UK healthunlocked.com/boneheal...

• Read our Pinned Posts healthunlocked.com/boneheal...

We hope you continue to enjoy the Bone Health and Osteoporosis UK Community and look forward to seeing your posts.

Best wishes

Bone Health and Osteoporosis UK Team

Terms and Conditions

This community is moderated by Royal Osteoporosis Society and the HealthUnlocked team. The Bone Health and Osteoporosis UK community is part of HealthUnlocked, a network of over 500+ conditions and wellness communities from organisations you know and trust. By using this community on HealthUnlocked, you are accepting these terms and conditions and agree to HealthUnlocked’ s Terms of Use.

Community atmosphere and respecting others

The Bone Health and Osteoporosis UK community is a safe, supportive, informative, and friendly forum for people wanting to improve their bone health and people who are affected by osteoporosis. Your participation in this community should be with respect, honesty and in the spirit of supporting and learning from fellow members.

We maintain the right to remove posts and threads that:

• do not adhere to these guidelines.

• contain content that we believe is damaging, unhelpful or distressing to others.

• contain swearing or offensive language.

• are nonsensical and/or irrelevant.

• promote personal beliefs in a way that is disrespectful of the choices of others.

• are racist, sexist, homophobic, sexually explicit, or suggestive, abusive, or otherwise discriminatory or objectionable.

• pressurise other members to share personal information.

• describe or encourage violence, suicide or other activity which could endanger the safety or wellbeing of others.

• contain methods or details of suicide, self-harm, or sexual abuse.

• are a copy of another post or contain the same, or similar, message posted multiple times elsewhere.

• contain references to edits or moderation.

• are made from duplicate accounts.

• make inflammatory or provoking comments to other users.

• contain cyber bullying or trolling.

• mention medical/clinical professionals or specific healthcare providers by name, in a negative way.

If you believe someone else’s content violates these rules, please report it via the “Report” button. Content that is felt to violate these terms and conditions will either be edited or removed. All reports are read by Health Unlocked, and it is their judgement on what action, if any, is taken.

Neither the Royal Osteoporosis Society nor HealthUnlocked is responsible for any offence or injury that a member may draw from another member’s content.

Medical Advice and Health Information

The Bone Health and Osteoporosis UK community strives to promote the sharing of useful health information and support on matters of concern to individuals within the community. The focus of this forum community is bone health, osteoporosis and related conditions not all bone diseases and conditions. For other health concerns, we recommend you check out the other bone condition communities on HealthUnlocked.

If you need medical advice

The information posted on this site should not be used as a means of diagnosis, determining treatment, nor replace the relationship between you, your doctors and other healthcare professionals.

You are encouraged to consult a medical professional for:

• a personal bone health assessment and to understand appropriate drug treatment options to strengthen your bones.

• if you need help with pain and symptoms following broken bones including spinal fractures

For an emergency in the UK contact 999; for immediate personal medical advice contact your healthcare professional or 111. Never delay seeking medical advice, treatment or contacting the emergency services because of something that you have read on this site.

Health information and the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS)

The ROS provides information on all aspects of osteoporosis and bone health for people living in the UK, see our website for up-to-date evidence-based health information – theros.org.uk

Contact our helpline or visit our website:

• For information and support on approaches to reduce the chance of a fracture, including lifestyle options such as nutrition and exercise, as well as osteoporosis drug treatments and help after fractures

• Whilst we cannot offer personal medical advice, we can help you to understand the options available and what the research and experts tell us. We work with experts in the field to ensure our medical information reflects the best clinical practice.

Please note that while the Royal Osteoporosis Society is an organisation based in the United Kingdom, members may be located worldwide. As such, details on approved medications, drug treatment protocols, healthcare, insurance, and other related topics may differ and should always be verified depending on your specific location.

Posting Content

Posting content on this community is taken as your agreement to post information that is true and accurate to the best of your knowledge and is primarily drawn from personal experience. You are encouraged to post content about your own experience with osteoporosis (or that of a loved one), ask questions, and offer support and information.

Any content posted on this community can be read, used, reproduced, and cited by other users of the site. You have the option to delete content you posted.

When you post third-party information, such as information about approaches to improve bone health, you are asked to provide references and links to sources wherever possible. Please ensure links are to a accurate and reliable sites (e.g. NHS).

We encourage the sharing of information but please make it clear if views are based on personal health beliefs and preferences, as opposed to conclusive research evidence. If statements are set out as proven facts where they are not, this can be confusing and misleading for those reading posts.

If you are reading a post, be aware:

• New research findings are interesting, but the findings published in one paper, even in a reputable journal, often do not constitute the truth as backed up by all the available research.

• Many posts relate to the drug treatments that are prescribed to help strengthen bones and reduce the chance of them breaking (including spinal fractures). As with all medications, some people are concerned about side effects. Be aware that often posts are made by those unhappy or fearful about medications or by those who have experienced side effects who are seeking answers. This can sometimes give a biased and not a typical picture of how these medicines are experienced. The positive or neutral experiences often are not reported. See the charity’s health information or contact our helpline if you need clarity on this.

Moderation

The organisation reserves the right to:

• uphold moderation decisions made

• refuse to respond to any persistent or malicious complaints

• remove public discussions of moderation or comments made about moderators.

Medical advice

• moderate any posts giving or contradicting medical advice. We recognise posts may discuss concerns and express personal views but giving directive medical advice telling people what they should do may be moderated.

Health information

• moderate any posts that are considered a risk to public health and safety.

• moderate health misinformation including the removal of information that is unreliable or unsafe.

Forum members should contact Royal Osteoporosis Society if they have any questions about moderation guidelines or decisions. You can email: [e-mail].

How we moderate

Content posted on this community is moderated by the Royal Osteoporosis Society and might be escalated to HealthUnlocked if necessary. We moderate in line with these forum guidelines and HealthUnlocked terms of use, we also reserve the right to remove any content that isn’t constructive or in line with the purpose of the community.

Moderation helps maintain a safe, positive environment for all members of the community. If there is a breach of these guidelines:

• Content may be edited or removed to ensure that the community remains supportive and responsive to all members.

• Members may be contacted to remind them about forum guidelines or to warn them not to continue to post inappropriately.

• Members may be temporarily or permanently restricted or removed from the community.

The community is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We do not routinely moderate overnight on weekends and bank holidays. Moderation occurs after content is posted. It may take time for reports to reach the moderation team. If you are concerned about any forum content (e.g. you feel it is harmful to others) please use the report button to alert the HealthUnlocked team. If you are concerned the report hasn’t been received by the team you can contact the team at [e-mail]

Any message posted on our Health Unlocked community is the views of the author of the message and does not necessarily reflect our views or those of any other person on the forum. Please note that the delay to remove or comment on material does not constitute an endorsement or acceptance of it by the Royal Osteoporosis Society.

Online Safety:

In this community, there may be discussions of health-related issues and sharing of personal information. Please note that the forum is an open site, meaning that any posts are searchable by internet search engines and can be shared via social media platforms. The default setting of posts allows them to be visible to individuals who are not members of the community.

If you would rather your content was not searchable, you can change the visibility of your post by selecting "Only community members" before clicking submit. This will result in only the post title and first line of text being visible to those who are not members of the community.

For your own safety, do not disclose personal information such as your full name, email address, home address, telephone number, bank details, or any other information which could directly or indirectly identify you. Please do not encourage or pressurise other members to share personal information with you. Keep communication transparent, We not responsible for, and cannot moderate or comment on, the exchange of communication via private message between forum members.

For more information on general online safety guidelines please visit: Information Commission’s Office – Online Safely:ico.org.uk/for-the-public/o...

Researchers and professionals

The use of this forum for gathering information for surveys, articles, and research studies, or similar, is not allowed unless the content posted by representatives of ROS. The charity is strongly positioned to ensure that patients and the public are actively involved in research at all stages, from identifying research questions, developing applications for funding, designing protocols, and finally participating in studies. ROS currently employs a research support request process for researchers wishing to request help with patient and public involvement.

For further information e-mail [e-mail] or call us on 01761 473125.

Safeguarding

This community is a safe space to discuss bone health and osteoporosis and is operated by the Royal Osteoporosis Society. We have a responsibility to support our members and will take appropriate steps to protect them from harm or risk of harm, within the limits of our control and access to data.

If you are concerned about another member of the Community, please use the ‘report’ button to notify the HealthUnlocked team.

This forum is a place for peer support and is not intended to replace counselling, crisis support or medical advice. For further support in a crisis:

• The Samaritans on 116 123, which is also a free Support Line, or their email address which is [e-mail] for mental health crises.

• For medical advice contact NHS Direct on 111 or for medical emergencies dial 999 or attend the Accident and Emergency department of a hospital.

Our moderation team will follow the Safeguarding Policy outlined by Royal Osteoporosis Society. As a result, we may contact community members who could be at risk of harm to offer support or share information.

If a community member is at risk of harm or in an emergency, we reserve the right to override confidentiality or to request information or support from HealthUnlocked.

Please see Health unlocked and ROS Safeguarding Policy for further details.

Age limit

For the protection and safety of children, the Community does not allow members under the age of 18 years. Accounts of members found to be under the age of 18 will be closed.

Solicitations and sales:

No self promotion, adverts, spam, or external signposting to profit making organisations is permitted. Please do not promote or advertise any services, commercial content, promotion of products and services or excessive self-promotion. Please note that Royal Osteoporosis Society does not endorse or recommend any specific products, services, therapies, or activities mentioned by any third party (individual or company).

The forum isn’t a place to for people to buy, sell or give things away. Please don’t request money or crowdfund from other members. We ask members not to give away items or equipment.

Complaints

We will try to resolve all issues with people who communicate with us. Please do not discuss any complaints via the forum, posts of this nature will be removed.

If you have a complaint about the forum please see our ROS complaints policy.

If your complaint is about problems using the community (for example posting or replying), please contact support.healthunlocked.com/....

Liability

We reserve the right to change these Terms and Conditions at any time. If you are uncertain about anything in these Terms and Conditions, please contact us [e-mail]

This website is intended for people based within the United Kingdom. We cannot guarantee that the site or the contents of the site complies with the requirements of, or is appropriate for use in, other countries.

Opinions posted or private messaged on the forum are those of the individual and in no way represent the view of the Royal Osteoporosis Society.