So you've had a look around and you've decided that you want to join. YAY! However, you may be a little confused as to how exactly you register. Here's a guide to help:

I. Register with the right name.
II. Submit an application.
III. Submit a mental health profile.
IV. Wait to be accepted.
V. Fill out the claims.
VI. Post in the personal storage forum. (optional)
VII. Roleplay!

I. Register with the right name.

Make sure you register according to the member group you want to be in. Doctors register as Dr. Lastname (Dr. Andrews), nurses as first name last initial (Cory A.), and patients as their full name (Cory Andrews). It does not matter if it is in caps or not. Please also remember that there is a Wait List for doctors, but nurses are always available!

II. Fill out and submit an application.

Well, this part is rather straightforward, isn't it? Go to Nurses Station > Applications and you will find three templates. Any one will work for whichever character you have, but you MUST fill one of these templates out. When you're done, post it in the same Applications forum. Then immediately got to the next step. There are a few canons that can be found here: adoptable characters if you find yourself strapped for ideas.

Some things to remember:

-A character’s history is really important, and in most cases defines them and explains how they came to South Pacific Private. However, childhood sexual abuse is overdone. Childhood sexual abuse is overdone. Childhood sexual abuse is overdone. If you insist on using that, remember that, depending on the age the abuse first started, there will be physical consequences. There will be injuries, there will most likely be hospital visits, which leads to child protective services getting involved and the like. So to sum it up, just make sure if you have something like that in your character’s background, that it’s at least plausible.

-Remember that your character’s life doesn’t necessarily have to be full of drama to get them here. Not everyone has to have an abusive past. That’s not to say that no one has one, because they’re stereotypes for a reason, but not everyone has to have one. We leave it up to you to choose disorders, pasts, and everything else about your character, but we like to see creativity. So get out there, expand your horizons and get creative (but plausible)!

III. Fill out & submit a mental health profile.

In the Getting Started forum, there will be a subforum called Mental Health Notes. Within this subforum is a template that must be filled out and submitted before you can be accepted. The reason for this is simple: this is where you write down why your character is considered to have whichever disorder they have, and without it the admins can't be sure that your character is realistic. You do not have to fill out your patient number.

Some things to remember:

-The more detailed, the better. You’re going to want to research your disorder to make sure it fits. Psychology isn’t the most exact science, so everything’s a bit relative. As long as whatever you say your character has can be explained by the DSM or some other type of article that gives criteria for the disorder and actually applies to your character, it will be fine.

-Doctors can see this. So if something isn’t supposed to be known (i.e. some type of violence, abuse, murder, etc.), don’t put it on here. That’s what goes in the ‘history’ part of your application. In addition, Doctors can update this with what they think your character has.

-Remember that whatever you put on here is a preliminary diagnosis, meaning that it’s what other doctors (aka you, in this instance) have diagnosed your character with. This also means that the name of the disorder and how it applies to the character may change as you roleplay here, and that’s perfectly fine. However, what you do put down needs to match up with the disorder. You can’t put PTSD if nothing traumatic has ever happened to your character. This pretty much repeats the first thing we said, we just wanted to explain it differently.

-Be careful of writing down symptoms instead of a disorder. Things such as flashbacks and delusions are only symptoms of a bigger disorder, and you’ll need to do a little research into the disorder your character has. If your character has a few of the symptoms of a disorder, but not enough for it to be classed as the actual disorder, then you can write Preliminary Diagnosis on your MHP. This means it will change as you roleplay, though that change may be only to confirm the preliminary diagnosis.
Example: PTSD requires one stressor, one intrusive recollection, three avoidant/numbing and two hyper-arousal criterion, not to mention a duration-specific criterion. If your character only has two avoidant/numbing and/or one hyper-arousal criterion, it would be a Preliminary Diagnosis, because that means more research is needed in order to properly diagnose. This is an acceptable reason to come to South Pacific Private.

IV. Wait to be accepted.

This part is possibly the easiest. During this time you may fill out the claims, but you cannot actually roleplay until you have been accepted. This may take up to 24 hours.

V. Fill out the claims.

Also rather self-explanatory. Go to Room 382 and reply to the claims posts in code. You do not have to reply to the Staff Patient Relations thread; this thread will give you ideas for you to ship with, however, as each character is assigned a nurse and a doctor.

VI. Post in the personal storage forum. (optional)

If you wish to post thread trackers, journal templates or shipping plots, now would be a great time to do it!

VII. Roleplay!

Welcome to South Pacific Private! Feel free to post anywhere, and remember that we have an open thread directory, too!