Hi Netty
Thank you for your kind offer but I am not sure how well it would mix for someone who is on here as a sufferer of PNI to also take on the role of professional, on what is a self help group.
I did not start this thread and would not as it would actually be opposed to the self help concept to encourage anyone to post in their professional capacity on here - except of course on the professionals section or tmaybe to offer the forum some appropriate general information.
I would also be worried about the effect on any sufferer who tried to mix the personal with the professional on a self help forum.
I hope you understand what I mean.
You are here because you are a suferer of PNI as we all are, not because of your work - and you can not answer for all HVs or the whole profession and I do not think you should be asked to or offer to.
We would of course be happy for you to offer information now and then based on your professional practice .
However to be fair on you I would not want you to do this at the expense of your own support for your own PNI. I would not want to put you under any pressure at all
I think its a question of which hat to wear as well when you are on the forum.
This is a self help forum and you have joined us because you have PNI and want support for yourself. and therefore on here you are wearing your fellow sufferer hat and I do not think it would lead to your getting the support you need if you were to also wear your HV hat.
While we are happy that professionals read the forum in their professionals capacity and they are free to comment in the 'professionals section here
veritee.proboards7.com/index.cgi?board=professionals( they rarely do although I know the forum is read!)
and women with professional jobs/occupations of all kinds are welcome and have used the forum when they have PNI - we have had women with jobs ranging from doctors, scientists, lecturers, IT professionals, professors, teachers, social workers, midwives, nurses , CPNs and of course HVs joining us when they have PNI-
but the emphasis is not on them being professionals but on them having PNI..
I would be worried that if you started to answer questions based on your professional practice only you would not get the support you need right now as a sufferer of PNI - as you may be responded to as a HV and not you- Netty - a mother with PNI and two children who knows what it feels like to cry all day and feel totally as if you are the only person going through this.
So what I would suggest is that is anyone has specific questions regarding your profession then they could ask them in the 'professionals' section.
But you really do not have to take it on board to answer them as you can not answer for the whole HV profession and as Susanne said some of us have had bad experiences and are not very positive about HVs in general and I would not want this negativity to be directed towered you in any way or for you to feel it was.
After all I am sure that you are a great HV and really do your best in your job - and perhaps you are off work anyway at present.
so the answer is yes by all means answer any questions that relate to your job, and if when responding to posts and you have some knowledge relating to your practice as a HV or learned through your work - then perhaps if you say you will address it in the professionals section use a strategy I use when I draw on knowledge gained in my former work as a youth worker and group work or teaching ..............
I usually then make it clear when this information or knowledge is coming for by prefacing it with - 'in my work as a youth worker' or I found in my group work practice' or ' when I was teaching'
so that those reading it will know when you put on a different hat - in your case HV.
But really you do not have to come on here as a HV or answer as a HV.
To me you are first and foremost a woman who like me has suffered this truly devastating illness and this is how I relate to you whatever your job or training .
So yes by all means answer questions based on your work if you want to , but you do not have to as you can chose to leave work behind when you come on here as many of us do - but we should also all be aware that you are someone with PNI too and we want to support you as someone with PNI
I do hope you are feeling OK today yourself .
Also thought I would say I have left the chat thread for now to see how it goes as it seems OK there.
I also wondered if you wanted to start a dairy? as this can be a very social thing as the diaries are used as a record of how individuals feel and as a record of their ups and downs partly to recognize any patterns but also have evolved to become some where were we can have a chat with individuals too and share our lives
Veriteex