Rules of engagement

Clear expectations, from the first message on.

Health Mentors is for adults 18 and older, including workshop registration. You can request a conversation with a mentor, which takes place on Health Mentors if they accept, or send them a one-time email introduction, after which any reply continues over regular email. These simple rules keep both respectful, honest, and safe.

Nobody reads along.

Conversations on Health Mentors.Messages stay on Health Mentors and are visible only to the two of you. We don't monitor conversations in real time; staff read one only if one of you reports it. Messages are text only and can't be edited or deleted, so the responsibility to keep them appropriate rests with both of you.

Email introductions. The mentor receives your message and your email address, and any reply continues over regular email. Health Mentors does not host or monitor what happens next, and the same goes for anything you move off Health Mentors.

In immediate danger, call 911.

For everyone

  • Be truthful about your identity, experience, goals, and availability.
  • Keep messages professional and about health-care education or careers.
  • Never request money, gifts, secrecy, romantic or sexual contact, medical treatment, or private records.
  • Don't promise or expect guaranteed admission, employment, shadowing, or outcomes.
  • Either person may stop responding or end a conversation at any time, for any reason.
  • Don't pressure anyone to move to another app, phone number, or social account, and don't share someone else's personal information.

For mentees

  • Send a clear, specific introduction — what you're exploring and what you'd like to ask.
  • Respect a mentor's time and boundaries; a reply is a gift, not a guarantee.
  • Keep questions about the path, not personal medical advice.
  • Don't share sensitive personal or medical details you wouldn't want forwarded.

For mentors

  • Stay within your experience, and separate personal perspective from professional advice.
  • Don't diagnose, prescribe, or establish a clinical relationship.
  • Protect what a mentee shares and never redistribute their profile.
  • Turn off availability when you don't have capacity to respond.
  • Use a clear, recent photo of just you — no logos, group shots, or anything you wouldn't show a student. Staff remove photos that don't fit.

A good first message

“Hi Dr. Lee — I'm a college sophomore considering emergency medicine. I'd love to hear how you chose EM and what you'd tell someone deciding between EM and family medicine. Thank you for any time you can share.”

What we'd flag

  • Asking for a diagnosis, prescription, or medical treatment.
  • Requesting money, gifts, or a guaranteed spot/shadowing/job.
  • Anything romantic, sexual, or asking to keep contact secret.

Reporting a concern

In a conversation on Health Mentors, use Report in that conversation. Reporting ends the conversation straight away and alerts our staff, who can then read it; every time they do is logged. The other person is told only that the conversation ended — not that you reported it. You can also Enda conversation without reporting it — that is final, and the other person can't contact you there again.

For anything else — an email exchange after an introduction, a profile, or something outside a conversation — tell us through the contact page (choose “conduct”). We review reports and may suspend accounts or remove mentors from the directory. Health Mentors is not an emergency service — if you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911 or your local emergency number first.

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