Many experts argue, and for good reason, that telemental health is undeniably the way of the future.The Internet and social networking are offering numerous new clinical opportunities as well as presenting us with new ethical challenges, especially for those who choose to provide telemental health or online therapy. The new challenges include extra-therapeutic online contacts between therapists and their clients, such as interaction on Facebook and Twitter, as well as communications via e-mail, videos and texting. Of course, security and privacy issues are paramount to telemental health. Questions also arise regarding what distinguishes personal from professional activities online. Without a doubt telemental health requires developing policies or informed consent related to online behaviors and interactions.
Conducting telemental health also introduces distinct concerns in regard to confidentiality, privacy, multiple relationships, visibility or self-disclosure for both clients and clinicians. We are also seeing some new research trends regarding clinicians and clients seeking out or stumbling upon one another’s information online.
Our revised continuing education course on Digital and Social Media Ethics provides a framework for understanding how existing ethics codes apply to our digital lives and behaviors. It provides a grounding in presenting one’s self ethically and professionally online. It also helps clinicians understand how they can address issues before they occur by creating policies that can be shared as part of informed consent.