Terms and conditions

Our mission

Our mission is to help people who are struggling with their mental health to live successful, healthy lives with the ability to manage their mental health, feel hopeful about the future and make impactful contributions to society.

Our values

Giving everyone a safe space to talk HONESTLY about mental health, to provide EMPATHY and KINDNESS to yourself and to others and to EMPOWER people struggling with their mental health to find a voice for EQUALITY. We value INNOVATION and COLLABORATION and believe in working with others to create societal change for a better future.

Risks of using the service

You assume all risk for use of the service. My Black Dog Staff, Volunteers, Board of Trustees, Contractors, Ambassadors, Associates and Patrons, to the extent permitted by law, have no liability for any action taken by you or a person acting on your behalf as a result of using this service. You agree to indemnify us and hold us harmless for any damages resulting in the use of our service, including by not limited to any unlawful act committed by you, any claims from third parties or representatives, any breach of these terms and any information provided to you from using the service. My Black Dog is not liable for any consequential damages that are a) financial b) emotional c) physical, either directly or indirectly.

Whilst it is My Black Dog’s hope to meet your expectations of the service, we offer no guarantee that the service will meet your expectations or needs. My Black Dog is not liable for any mistakes made resulting from either human or technological error.

All of our volunteers are people with lived experiences of mental health conditions. We are not counsellors, medical professionals or psychiatrists and do not offer clinical treatment for mental health conditions. My Black Dog should not be used in place of seeking professional support for your mental health. Your correspondence with My Black Dog volunteers does not constitute a professional, medical or clinical relationship with us either as individuals or as a service.

My Black Dog volunteers, staff and Board of Trustees are NOT responsible for any decision you make as a result of using this service. This includes, but is not limited to, your management of your own mental and physical health, your decisions on seeking medical care or your decisions around treatments or medications.

Privacy Policy

We have a duty of care to disclose information shared with us as laid out in our Privacy Policy which can be found on the My Black Dog website.

Availability of the service

We will endeavour to make our services available during the times advertised on our website, but cannot guarantee that our services will be open at all times. We may need to close the service at our discretion for reasons of lack of staff, volunteers, funds or ability.

Emergencies

My Black Dog is unable to support guests who are experiencing a crisis with their mental health. If guests are at immediate risk of harm, or need emergency support, they will be signposted to the Samaritans on 116 123 or SHOUT by texting 85258.

If you in danger or need emergency help, please call 999.

Over 18s

Guests must be 18 years or over in order to speak to one of our volunteers. If you are under 18, you still deserve support but from a dedicated service. Please visit Childline on www.childline.org.uk  or The Mix (if 16-25) www.themix.org.uk/get-support.

Behaviour to our volunteers and staff

My Black Dog volunteers have all had their own mental health struggles, we ask that you are not only mindful of this, but also respectful of their experiences, whether past or present.

My Black Dog volunteers may become triggered by some conversation and are allowed to transfer a conversation to protect their own mental health as they choose.

Inappropriate behaviour, crude/rude/salacious/inflammatory/unkind or unruly chat threatening language, sexually explicit content and abusive content is not welcome at My Black Dog. We ask that you treat our volunteers and staff the same safety and respect that we treat our guests, failure to do so will result in being blocked from the service.

Right to block a guest

My Black Dog reserves the right to ban a guest from using the service at any time at our discretion.

If your correspondence with us is deemed inappropriate, malicious, harmful or derogatory in nature, we reserve the right to block your access to our service and, if needed, your email address from our email channels.

Blocking guests can be temporary or permanent and the level of time that the guest is blocked will be at the discretion of My Black Dog staff.

My Black Dog may only be used for lawful purposes and in accordance with these terms. You agree not to use the service for a) any purpose that would violate the law b) with the intention of harming or exploiting another person, with or without their knowledge c) the threaten/attempt to cause harm/undermine or act in a vexatious manner to any member of staff, volunteer, contractor, patron, ambassador, trustee or associate of My Black Dog d) to attempt to halt, disrupt or disable the service provided e) to discredit the charity or service.

Online chat

When you being a chat online with our volunteer you will be asked to agree to our terms of service before continuing with the conversation, your confirmation to continue constitutes your agreement to these terms.

Bombardment policy

My Black Dog operates a bombardment policy for all correspondence, whether that is in writing, via email or on our online chat. Bombardment includes, but is not limited to, starting multiple chat messages via our platform in a short amount of time, sending similar messages from multiple devices to our platform, logging on an off to start new chats throughout a shift, sending more than two emails per day,  sending multiple messages in a row without waiting for a volunteer response, and any other bombarding activity that is considered to draw attention away from other guests in need of our assistance. If your correspondence exceeds what we feel is appropriate level of communication, we may block you from these channels.