Strategic Plan

The PPD/TMS Peer Network*

Strategic Plan for 2011-2013

Goal Statement

To relieve suffering from Psychophysiologic Disorders (PPD) by raising awareness, providing information based on scientific evidence, facilitating expression of a wide variety of perspectives, and giving individual support to people with PPD.

Value Statement

As a peer association, and as individuals, we value the ideas, opinions, and thoughts of all people, along with confidentiality, democracy, high quality treatment, trust, reason and well supported arguments. We strive to support people with PPD because the mind body approach worked in curing our chronic symptoms. As an organization we strive to be transparent and avoid conflicts of interest. We provide the reader with high quality information, and they decide for themselves what techniques to use. We recognize that recovery is different for everyone; therefore different people will need different treatment approaches. If a given approach or technique, worked for one person than we want to create a platform for that person/approach so other people will be able to decide if it will work for them as well. We are committed to develop more resources on PPD and strive to raise awareness about this treatment approach, of which we are eternally grateful to all of the PPD practitioners especially Dr. John Sarno.

We believe PPD peers are a great source of information on how best to treat PPD. We strive to empower peers to share their wisdom with others. Peer signifies many of the ideas we value. We use “peer” because we believe that peers have a lot to offer each other and that an organization run by peers can have a distinctive voice that can strengthen the overall movement.

We aim to support and partner with other organizations with similar values and goals. Partnerships with practitioner driven organizations provide us with scientific guidance, allowing us to promote evidence based approaches and approaches that represent a consensus of opinion by practitioners. If a reputable organization of practitioners comes up with core principles for treatment and diagnosis or other subjects we will promote these as part of our goal as being providers of high quality scientific information.

As people who went through the experience of having chronic pain and recovering from it, we strive to share our experiences with others and help them, not as practitioners, but as a community of friends and peers.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

Strengths

• The members of PPDPeer have personal experience with chronic pain and/or other symptoms. We know firsthand what our visitors are suffering.
• Support groups and other patient driven content are inexpensive.
• Due to low expenses we have no need for advertisements and limited needs for other sources of revenue, which enhances our credibility with visitors.
• Anyone can create or edit a page which gives us a potentially endless supply of editors.
• We have the largest amount of PPD-related information on the internet.
• We can have volunteers write newsletters and manage mailing lists for practitioners and peers.
• Our only cost for creating content is our time. Because we have many editors, we can grow rapidly. Research about wikis confirms this is a successful model. Successful wikis typically have many thousands of pages.
• Because of our strict and clearly expressed Conflict of Interest Policy and a board controlled by people with no conflict of interest, we can post information by and about practitioners, without creating the appearance that we promote professional interests.
• With members from around the globe, we have the potential to reach anyone suffering from PPD.
• As an organization we have many members with substantial technical expertise, allowing regular enhancement of the features on our site.

Weaknesses

• Since we are not practitioners we lack the professional credentials to recruit and teach practitioners about PPD.
• We lack the resources and professional credentials to reach out to the media and gain coverage/publicity for PPD.
• Since we are not practitioners we are limited in reaching people who have not accepted a PPD diagnosis.
• The vast majority of successful wikis are extremely large sites, consisting of tens of thousands of pages. Large websites like this can be overwhelming, hard to use, and confusing.
• The public perception of wikis is that other sources of evidence-based health care information may be more reliable.
• Our revenue and fund raising resources are minimal.
• Our website uses a template from a hosting site, therefore our customization is limited.

Opportunities

• More and more people are learning how to use internet resources, including wikis.
• Social networking has become highly popular with the rise of Facebook and Twitter. Consequently, people are now more willing to become active in an online community.
• The success of Wikipedia has increased familiarity with wikis.
• Disappointment with the lack of formal training about PPD in most practitioners of western medicine is leading increasing numbers of people to explore new options, including a mind-body approach, for persistent, unexplained symptoms.
• Accurate information about PPD is limited in availability from poorly trained health care professionals. This has created a large need for a free online resource.
• We have an excellent reputation among medical and mental health practitioners.

Threats

• The move to fully incorporate the term PPD in the organization's name may lead to confusion and a significant loss of search engine traffic. Even though we won't change any content on the site, doing so may also push people away who think we are deviating too far from Dr. Sarno's practice.
• Roughly 2% of users contribute to community projects like wikis.
• Few people are knowledgeable about PPD, which limits our potential membership and support.
• For our complex organization to function, new volunteers need considerable training. However many people only volunteer for around 4-6 months.
• People with PPD frequently have traits of perfectionism and goodism, causing them to take on too much and then burn out. Therefore they need to be reminded that their participation should be a source of joy and meaning, not one of frustration and obligation.
• People willing to accept a diagnosis of PPD without a physician's confirmation are typically confident about questioning authority. Getting such opinionated volunteers on the same page without diminishing enthusiasm can be time consuming and exhausting.

DISCLAIMER: The TMS Wiki is for informational and support purposes only and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment recommendations. See Full Disclaimer.