In today’s world social media has created a direct link between clients
and professionals. Social media
including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are the new classified ads for our
generation. These sites are now the
route that supposedly the hip and with it crowds are taking to share
resources and to connect with the community.
As one of the newest therapists to the AzAMFT organization, I am learning the need to get out there and be “searchable” among these different sites. With being searchable and present among these sites comes a few questions of how to maintain ethical interactions in a virtual world. Though our ethic code does not include social media directly, there are a few things I found to be helpful in guiding our decisions in cyberspace.
Dr. Keely Kolmes, and a group of mental health providers, offered best practice guidelines in their article “An Ethical Framework for the Use of Social Media by Mental Health Providers,” (Anthony, Kolmes, & Nagel, 2011). This nine page article listed many relevant ethics to help create a standard for all mental health providers. Some of these standards included: confidentiality, avoiding multiple relations, creating appropriate informed consents with social media expectations, working within competency, and understanding boundaries of professional versus personal interactions.
Though the lines may be more blurred with multiple relationships on these websites, a guiding principle could be to avoid a connection if it “could impair professional judgment or increase the risk of exploitation,” (AAMFT Code of Ethics, 2012). These blurred lines can become more defined as you set a privacy boundary between your own personal facebook or twitter account from your professional page. These lines could be more black and white if expectations are included in an informed consent. An example to would be to include a friending section, it could say “I will not accept personal friend requests” or “I do not accept clients as fans of this page.”
In the March issue of Family Therapy magazine, an article discussing ethics within facebook relayed some comforting things that we all know to fall back on and these are: “the everlasting foundational ethics… the underlying principle, ‘do no harm.’” (Spotts-De Lazer, 2013). Though our AAMFT Code of Ethics may not include social media we have a clear compass to guide us. As we abide by our code and legal jurisdiction we will become a more connected association. Oh and don’t forget about the fact that we will be the new hip and with it community of therapists!
As one of the newest therapists to the AzAMFT organization, I am learning the need to get out there and be “searchable” among these different sites. With being searchable and present among these sites comes a few questions of how to maintain ethical interactions in a virtual world. Though our ethic code does not include social media directly, there are a few things I found to be helpful in guiding our decisions in cyberspace.
Dr. Keely Kolmes, and a group of mental health providers, offered best practice guidelines in their article “An Ethical Framework for the Use of Social Media by Mental Health Providers,” (Anthony, Kolmes, & Nagel, 2011). This nine page article listed many relevant ethics to help create a standard for all mental health providers. Some of these standards included: confidentiality, avoiding multiple relations, creating appropriate informed consents with social media expectations, working within competency, and understanding boundaries of professional versus personal interactions.
Though the lines may be more blurred with multiple relationships on these websites, a guiding principle could be to avoid a connection if it “could impair professional judgment or increase the risk of exploitation,” (AAMFT Code of Ethics, 2012). These blurred lines can become more defined as you set a privacy boundary between your own personal facebook or twitter account from your professional page. These lines could be more black and white if expectations are included in an informed consent. An example to would be to include a friending section, it could say “I will not accept personal friend requests” or “I do not accept clients as fans of this page.”
In the March issue of Family Therapy magazine, an article discussing ethics within facebook relayed some comforting things that we all know to fall back on and these are: “the everlasting foundational ethics… the underlying principle, ‘do no harm.’” (Spotts-De Lazer, 2013). Though our AAMFT Code of Ethics may not include social media we have a clear compass to guide us. As we abide by our code and legal jurisdiction we will become a more connected association. Oh and don’t forget about the fact that we will be the new hip and with it community of therapists!
Sources:
American Association for Marriage
and Family Therapy. (2012, July).
Can be found here http://www.aamft.org/imis15/Content/Legal_Ethics/Code_of_Ethics.aspx
Anthony, K., Kolmes, K.,
Nagel Merz, D. (2011).
An Ethical Framework for the Use of Social Media by Mental Health
Providers. Tilt Magazine, Issue 3,
(20 – 29). Retrieved from http://issuu.com/onlinetherapyinstitute/docs/issue3/20
Spotts-De Lazzer, A.
(2013). Faceblur. Family Therapy, 12(2).
Retrieved from http://www.aamft.org/iMIS15/magazine/MarchApril2013/
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