These guidelines are in place to help create a safe environment on all social media channels run by St Vincent’s Health Australia in which to encourage open discussion. We aim to create a supportive online community for our patients, families, staff and the general community where members can engage safely in debate and are free to make comments and ask questions. We require that anyone engaging with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members of our social media communities.
In order to help create this safe environment we have set out some guidelines which apply to any engagement with us or other members of the community on any of our social media channels.
By engaging with our social media channels you agree to act responsibly and respectfully and follow these guidelines.
Contain spam, be defamatory of any person, deceive others, be obscene, offensive, threatening, abusive, hateful, inflammatory, fraudulent, or promote s*xually explicit material, illegal activity or violence.
Promote discrimination based on race, s*x, religion, nationality, disability, s*xual orientation or age.
Breach any of the terms of any of the social media platforms themselves.
Be off-topic, irrelevant or unintelligible.
Violate another person’s privacy.
Contain any advertising material or promote any services of any other organisation.
Personally identify any other individual without their expressed consent.
Contain any content that St Vincent’s considers inappropriate.
By submitting content to any St Vincent’s social media channel, you understand and acknowledge:
That this content is available to the public, and that St Vincent’s may use this information for internal and external communications, promotions and fundraising purposes.
Other participants may use your posted information beyond the control of St Vincent’s and if you do not wish to have your content used, published, copied and/or reprinted, please do not post it on any of our social media channels.
Breach of guidelines
St Vincent’s Health Australia reserves the right to determine, at our discretion, whether contributions to our social media channels breach our policies. We reserve the right to hide or remove comments at our discretion that are made on our channels, as well as block users who do not follow these guidelines, or the guidelines of the social media platform.
If St Vincent’s is made aware of any comments made on our social media channels, or outside St Vincent’s social media channels, that are threatening, unlawful or abusive, and relate to or involve St Vincent’s; we will investigate this material and take any action necessary to protect our organisation, our hospitals, staff and patients and their families.
We also reserve the right to share any content with law enforcement authorities for investigation as we deem to be necessary, or as is required by law.
Members of our social media channels who perpetuate views that are contradicted by evidence-based research and global health expertise, and whose content or behaviour poses a threat to public and individual health, will be immediately blocked. This includes participants who harass other users with incorrect medical information.
Hours of Operation & Monitoring:
St Vincent’s continuously monitors and responds to posts and questions on St Vincent’s social media channels, however we may not always be able to respond to all posts or answer online requests for information in a timely manner, particularly outside of normal business hours.
If the matter is a medical emergency please attend your nearest Emergency Department or call 000 immediately. If the matter is not urgent please consider visiting your GP or calling 13HEALTH.
St Vincent’s Health Australia Employees:
All St Vincent’s staff and employees must follow our St Vincent’s Social Media Policy when posting on social media at all times.
Contact:
Should you have any questions about this social media channel please contact svphn.enquiries@svha.org.au
