What does it mean to be an Ovacome answers volunteer?

[hastalapasta]

Is this a commitment for life?! How does it work?

[ovadmin]

It's not at all a big commitment - all it means is that if there is a new question once in a while you get a notification in your email with the question.

There's no obligation to answer, it's just a way of keeping you hooked into people asking for help and advice.

[Hidden in reply to ovadmin]

Plus you can turn off the Answers Volunteer button if you don't like being disturbed...

[wendydee]

Sounds good to me. Is this different to being a ROCC or will it work alongside this?

[ovadmin in reply to wendydee]

It's yet to be decided. Completely optional of course at the moment - but it will be great to get the ROCCs feedback on whether this would be a useful feature for them, to help share their experience and knowledge.

[inthepink in reply to wendydee]

I'm a ROCC with no blog experience and think this could be very useful yet dangerous at the same time. A ROCC's experience and knowledge are no guarantee of accuracy, and shouldn't be construed as some kind of authority. I wouldn't want people to think I'm sort of expert or authority when they see 'ROCC'.

I have all sorts of information resources that are handy to show support groups, such as Ovacome and Mac forum info, booklets from my hospital and a book called 100 questions and answers about ovarian cancer. Mainly, I have my own experience of a constantly changing health situation.

Perhaps there should be some sort of vetting process or at least controls/checks in place. I don't know how moderators are chosen for other sites - I think this might work.

[AngelaAbell in reply to wendydee]

Totally agree with the need for some sort of check if people are going to answer questions which may relate to health matters. Would it be worth linking into established validated sites for answers to health related questions - with the volunteers facilitating the link and providing the Ovacome support alongside it?

[ovadmin in reply to wendydee]

That's a nice idea - alongside the answers section a bunch of useful resources... We'll look into it