Pace cares deeply about the safety of our members. As a company focused on emotional health and wellness, our team works tirelessly to make sure we provide the necessary support for those in distress.

Pace also recognizes the harmful outcome of being exposed to content that can promote self-injury and harmful behavior. Although Pace is not therapy, many of our facilitators and team members are experienced in dealing with self-harming behaviors. Together, we created this policy to ensure we’re supporting our members fully, whether that’s at Pace or at other services, as well as ensuring content promoting or encouraging these behaviors are not part of the Pace platform.

Violation of this policy

Pace prohibits the promotion and encouragement of suicide and/or self-harm. This can include statements like “you should,” “the most successful way of,” and “the best way to do it is,” among others. Violation of this policy can occur either in session or in chat (e.g., images, videos, news articles).

Suicide is defined as the act of ending one’s own life. Self-harm includes self-inflicted harm injuries (e.g., cutting) and active eating disorders (e.g., bulimia, anorexia).

Violations of this policy include, but are not limited to:

• Encouraging other members to self-harm or kill themselves either in session or in chat;
• Asking other members for encouragement to engage in self-harming behaviors either in session or in chat;
• Share with other members information that encourages or assists in engaging in self-harming behavior or suicide either in session or in chat.
• Demonstrating signs closely tied to suicidal and/or self-harming behavior either in session or in chat. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • Individual factors (e.g., attempted suicide in the past, other mental health conditions, feeling of hopelessness about life, uncharacteristically aggressive or impulsive behavior);
  • Relationship factors (e.g., history of emotional or sexual abuse, socially isolated, lack of support, lost relationships due to divorce and/or break-ups);
  • Societal factors (e.g., ashamed to ask for help, lacks access to mental healthcare)

Non-violation of this policy

Stretch and challenge yourself, but “don’t pull a muscle.” Pace wants each member to show up authentically, and this may include sharing instances of previous self-injury and harmful behavior. While we do not promote or celebrate these behaviors, we understand they are an incremental part of who members are and may be referred to in a Pace group session. Pace is not therapy and, as such, there must be a balance between vulnerability and self-care/responsibility.

Examples of behavior that are not considered a violation of this policy include:

• Sharing previous history or situations in which a member engaged in self-harm or attempted suicide;
• Sharing strategies or resources on how to best address suicidal or self-harming thoughts;

It’s important to note that although it’s permitted to talk about previous instances of self-harming or suicidal behavior, please refrain from sharing any details or specific strategies/methods you used. Our facilitators are trained to steer conversations away from these topics when necessary and perform any safety assessment if needed. Note that Pace, as a non-clinical service, is not equipped to deal with these situations, but will offer support in finding the best service that can.

Reporting a violation of this policy

Everyone can report behavior that violates this policy. The reports are sent directly to our Care Safety Team dedicated to handling these individually. Reports include:

• A safety assessment performed by your facilitator and later shared with the Care Safety team;
• Direct reports from other members.