HEAL Community Forum

Forum Guidelines

To ensure a productive and respectful environment for all participants, please adhere to the following guidelines when using the HEAL Community Forum:

Engage Respectively

1. The forums are meant to stimulate conversation, not create contention. If you disagree or become upset with someone’s response or use of the forum(s), reply to that person directly and only when appropriate. All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, and offensive language is strictly prohibited. If you have cause for concern, please email info@healtrafficking.org ASAP; HEAL leadership takes such occurrences very seriously.
2. Remember that HEAL Trafficking is a non-partisan organization with diverse views and please keep your personal opinions germane to a discussion; while personal opinions are important, they may not always be appropriate for the topical online forums.
3. Only post job opportunities that include a salary/wage range. Position descriptions without such information discourage applicants of color from applying because they are unable to assess whether it’s a position they can take. It also perpetuates both racial and gender pay disparities as women and minorities are historically underpaid. Without any information about the range of pay, they are negotiating at a disadvantage.

Stay on Topic

1. While we recognize the value of learning about the breadth of anti-trafficking efforts, please keep the focus on healthcare-related discussions here.
2. Do not post commercial messages on the forums.
3. Before you send a message to one of the HEAL topical forums, consider whether the forum is the best venue for your message/conversation. A phone call to an individual may be a more effective means of discussion.

Communicate Clearly

1. State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line of your emails. Doing so allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members using Gmail accounts to search the online forum archives by subject.
2. We recommend including a signature tag on all messages that lists your name, personal pronouns, affiliation, 
location, and email address. However, it is up to you how much personal information you choose to share in your messages.
3. Only send a message to an entire forum when it contains information that 
benefits everyone. Send messages such as, “Thanks for the information,” or, “Yes!” to 
individuals — not to the entire forum. Send emails to individuals by using your email application’s forwarding option and typing in or cutting and pasting the email address of the individual to whom you want to respond.

Respect Privacy and Confidentiality

1. Never discuss protected health information, including identity, about a patient, or potential trafficking survivor or victim.
2. Do not post anything on any online forum that you would not want shared widely in the public domain or that you would not want anyone to know came from you. Remember that information posted on the forums is available for all to see, and comments are subject to applicable law, including defamation, libel, slander, and antitrust laws.

Actively Participate

• Do participate! Your ideas and experiences are important to hear.

General Information

• HEAL topical forums are open for all members of the forum to ask questions of the group, network and share best practices, and more. The HEAL general forum is just for messages from HEAL.
• HEAL Trafficking and other forum participants have the right to reproduce postings to the forums.
• If you are interested in recruiting participants for a research study using our Research topical forum, please fill out this Request to post form with the details of your request. HEAL strictly regulates community posts searching for participant recruitment based on specific criteria, including the requirement that the study will lead to academic publication and has obtained IRB approval.

Disclaimers

Messages and opinions expressed on the HEAL Community Forum are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of HEAL Trafficking, its directors, staff, volunteers, and/or the forum moderator(s).

HEAL Trafficking and/or the forum moderator(s) reserves the right to terminate the online forum(s) or any individual member’s subscription to the forum(s) at any time. Individual subscription is considered a privilege and may be revoked for non-compliant behavior or posting practices as set forth in the HEAL Community Forum guidelines. HEAL Trafficking and/or the forum moderator(s) reserves the right to make changes and modifications to the online forums and these disclaimers at any time for any reason.