KICKER: Useful assessment
Should only be used with consent
Social media should definitely be used for mental health assessments but only with the patient’s consent. It is important that the client is aware of the fact that the treatment or complete cure is only possible if he or she agrees to confide and believe in the therapist and his or her intention to achieve the best results. Qualified psychologists or therapists are repeatedly taught and encouraged to have and show unconditional positive regard and an unbiased attitude towards the patient. This, if practiced often, can help the patient develop a sense of faith and trust; not perceiving any relevant (to the mental health condition) fact as ‘confidential’ or ‘private’.
I agree that examining posting patterns could provide valuable information about the health of a patient and help predict a new episode. What we post on social media reflects some aspect of our belief system; a conscious or a subconscious thought that may seek attention or approval. Therefore, there is always some information that the therapist can unravel from analysing online behavioural pattern.
However, there are still a lot of people who are not familiar or aware of how to master social media in terms of commenting, liking a post or a page. Therefore, monitoring social media as part of a health assessment may not help at all. If the patient has poor judgment on social media and is yet to explore the various options, it is not fair to conclude that they have poor judgement in real life because that is not necessarily the case.
From Ms Pooja Vishwanathan
Recruitment researcher based in Dubai
KICKER:Individual basis
What we do online is different from real life
Social media has gained a lot of prominence in the 21st century but whether or not it is beneficial in mental health assessments is definitely questionable. While it is a form of self-reporting and goes beyond the four walls of an office, it is not necessary that what we post on a social networking sites is equivalent to what we actually do in real life. If we show poor judgement online, it doesn’t actually mean that we have poor judgement in real life.
I believe that this is something that should be decided on an individual basis and depending on the case. It is certainly good to monitor the patient to see what he or she is up to and to compare his or her online pattern with how he or she is like in real life, but it cannot be used as a definite factor in any mental health assessment.
With that said, examining a patient’s posting pattern may or may not provide valuable information about the patient but it doesn’t necessary help the psychologist in predicting a new episode. Another crucial aspect to whether or not psychologists should use social media to monitor patients is ethics. If a psychologists decides to cross the borders of traditional treatment, he or she needs to have the consent of the patient first. However, by doing so, it might mean that the patient completely changes his or her posting pattern just because he or she is aware of the fact that someone is monitoring them, and so the purpose is lost.
From Mr Hamad Al Marzouqi
Business graduate based in Dubai
KICKER: Legal obligation
Doctors must provide the best treatment at all times
Despite modern advancements, the fields of psychology and psychiatry mostly rely on self-reporting. Clients are asked to share details about their mood, thoughts, sleep patterns, medical health and family relationships in order to be able to offer ‘Grade A’ therapy. Social media psychology might be the new norm where researchers have begun to examine social media data as a gold mine for legitimate mental health assessments. I don’t see any problem with psychologists having access to their patients’ social media posts – a platform where they express all the above mentioned anyway. It may offer further valuable information about the current mental status of the patient, and help predict a detrimental accident that might help save a life.
I don’t agree that monitoring your patient online invades his or her privacy. While obtaining an informed consent from the patient is ethical but if you are not able to do so, gaining access without approval will only further benefit the patient. It is the legal obligation of every doctor to provide the best possible treatment at all times, practice confidentiality and use all means possible that is not indicated as lawfully illicit.
However, people can act differently on the internet than what they do in life. With that in mind, it is not possible to draw conclusions from mere statuses or tweets. For all you know, what you or I think is a more reliable picture of a person, might just be an attention seeking endeavour, a dare or a silly trick. Social media can be a good adjunct to treatment but it is not necessarily a replacement.
From Ms Zainab Riaz
Student based in Sharjah
KICKER: Breach of privacy
Traditional assessments work best
Monitoring your patients on social media is a huge invasion of privacy, especially if the patient did not choose to share this information, then the psychologist should not have access. A huge cornerstone of the relationship between a psychologist and his or her patient is trust, so if psychologists choose to monitor social media, that is a huge betrayal. Patients have the right to autonomy, and making their own decisions on what to share and what not to, therefore, psychologists must respect that. Monitoring patients online is in a way similar to following people when they are out and taking notes. The latter is obviously unacceptable, right? Besides, what people post online is not a true reflection of what they are feeling. A lot of people post things in order to receive attention, or for other reasons that don’t reflect their true emotions. However, their true emotions are what they choose to disclose to their psychologist in a one-to-one session where there is no judgment, and the environment is safe.
The health of a patient should not be evaluated based on letters from a keyboard and behind a screen. As there isn’t enough scientific research on the benefits of such monitoring and the risks of doing so, we should stick to what we know is beneficial to patients, and assess them clinically rather than online without their knowledge.
From Dr Hadeel Al Jazzaf
A general practitioner based in Kuwait
-Compiled by Donia Jenabzadeh/Community Web Editor
