Thanks for your question. We work hard to make sure that all questions that are submitted to Peer Talk are answered and posted back to the main page within 3-5 business days. We do not screen or censor the questions unless that are very inappropriate. Examples of inappropriate questions would include lewd sexual comments or questions that are meant to bully or harass other people.
Keeping this in mind, however, Peer Talk presents some unique challenges compared to other forms of communication. First, because answers to questions are done in the style of a blog post which is available to everyone who wants to see it, we often rewrite the question in order to shorten it enough to make it a title of the post. If you are looking through the Peer Talk responses and expecting to see your questions EXACTLY as you wrote it, you may miss the answer entirely.
Second, due to the anonymous and one-way nature of Peer Talk (you send us a question but our volunteers aren’t able to ask you clarifying questions), the answer provided by our volunteers may not be what you were looking for. Often times people ask two or more questions at once but one of the questions is much more important than the other. Because our volunteers can’t confirm which question is most important to you, they may place more of a focus on something that you weren’t expecting.
So, what can you do? First, you can go back through the Peer Talk responses and look for responses that fit the theme of your question. If that isn’t working for you or you can’t find a response that you think fits, you still have other options. You can resubmit your questions through Peer Talk, or, you can contact us in another way. If you are worried about confidentiality or anonymity I would suggest emailing us. You don’t have to tell us your name or any other information that you don’t want to but we can take a more personal approach to your questions because we can communicate back and forth with you. We also won’t need to generalize the answer to your specific question because we won’t be posting the emails in a public forum.
We want to be able to answer your questions whenever possible but we also acknowledge that Peer Talk has limitations that other ways of communicating do not. We can always be reached 24/7 by phone at 403.264.8336; text at 587.333.2724 (evenings and weekends) or email at connecteen@distresscentre.com
