Sascha Gallardo – September 29, 2021
Around 45,000 individuals make use of Ben’s Friends communities every month. People suffering from a rare disease are looking for information about how others like them cope.
Many of them want to learn about the treatments and procedures available, as well as the doctors and clinics recommended by others.
There are also parents and other caregivers who check our sites to learn how to make their loved one’s life better.
The needs of our members and site visitors are by no means simple. Ensuring that they have a safe place to address these needs is no easy task.
We’re happy to share with you how our moderators help each other to improve each and every Ben’s Friends patient community.
Learning from experiences of other communities. Even though each community focuses on one specific rare disease or a group of similar illnesses, there are still so many things our moderators learn from each other.
For instance, we have communities that have been founded much earlier, some of them are now 10 to 11 years old. At the same time, we have communities that have been launched only recently and could benefit from the experiences in older communities. These include gaining new members and how to best handle posts that veer away from community guidelines.
Providing technology information and assistance. Being a network of online patient communities, Ben’s Friends rely heavily on computer softwares and programs.
We’re very lucky that we have moderators who willingly share their expertise on computer softwares and programs.
Aside from managing the technical aspects such as creation of email user accounts, they also assist the other moderators whenever they have questions or encounter some technical issues.
Discussing news and other important information. Many of the different events around the world can have an impact on the lives of patients such as new government policies and health protocols. Whenever there’s an important issue, our moderators talk about these things, their potential impact on the communities, and any steps that need to be taken for the benefit of our members.
Sharing relevant research and medical advancements. New scientific research findings and medical advancements can change the course of one’s disease. Some of these advancements may be the answer one patient had been waiting for. Ben’s Friends moderators keep themselves abreast of these developments and share them with the team so that they can be relayed to the communities when appropriate.
Ben’s Friends is undoubtedly very lucky to have moderators who not only take care of their own patient community but work as a team. Our communities just keep on getting better, thanks to the dedication of our moderators.