Privacy and Security Healthcare professionals should keep separate personal and professional profiles on social media accounts and are encouraged to objectively assess and review their privacy settings on all social media accounts and their motivations for those settings. The NBCC Code of Ethics (2023) specifically states that counselors must be familiar with the use of privacy and security settings of social media (Standard 110). It is also advisable for the therapist to always stay mindful of what they do post on their accounts, knowing that clients may be able to get around privacy settings and access the information. In addition, even with privacy restrictions, many social media platforms allow people to tag others, which could link the profiles of close family members or friends of the therapist. Baier (2019) reports that 70% of clients surveyed in a large study admitted to finding personal information about their therapist online, but less than one quarter of them told their therapist about it. She reminds the therapist that their online information is easily available and is usually used for benign, curiosity reasons. However, in rare cases the information can be used to facilitate stalking, threatening, or harassing of the therapist or the therapist’s close relationships. Therefore, Setting Social Media Boundaries The therapist must stay mindful to maintain patient confidentiality and privacy in all settings. They should maintain appropriate boundaries with clients on the internet just as they would in person and recognize that one’s online actions may affect one’s professional reputation and career. Having a clear written policy about online and social media activity should be discussed and made part of the client’s chart. If the therapist is considering a social media boundary crossing, they must first carefully examine multiple factors including the therapist’s motivation for the crossing, the level of therapist–client power differential, the extent of potential role conflict of interest, and the potential for harm to the client or third parties. Baier (2019) offers eight suggestions and guidelines for clinicians who choose to have a presence on social media platforms: 1. Increase anonymity—Providers should explore use of pseudonyms. They should block public view of friend lists, birthday, hometown, educational background, and relatives. 2. Decrease social networks—Clinicians should be selective when accepting friend requests and should limit the visibility of their posts so they are not public. Dating Apps Connecting on social media networking sites forms a virtual nonsexual multiple relationship. The newer and increasingly popular dating apps, however, have the potential to create in-person connections. Clinicians are aware that sexual relationships with current clients are a firmly prohibited boundary violation. Yet how does the therapist manage the inadvertent “matching” with a current or former client on a dating app? Unhejm and colleagues (2021) reviewed these situations and noted that there are few specific guidelines detailing how a clinician should present themselves on a dating app, what they are allowed to disclose on that app, and how they should place boundaries when a current or previous client matches with them on the app. How a clinician chooses to present themselves on a dating app can not only affect the perception of the therapist by the client, but it also has implications for the credibility of the healthcare profession as a whole. Clinicians should make sure that their
social media use poses potential problems not only to the client, but to the clinician as well. How might a client’s access to the therapist’s social media accounts, by client search or by therapist “friending,” impact therapy? Can it interfere with therapeutic progress? How does knowledge about the therapist’s personal life impact the client’s perception of, and trust in, the therapist? As examples, apply these questions to the following scenarios: ● Dr. Jones is very active on multiple social media platforms and posts prolifically. He has numerous pictures of himself at parties with friends, clearly enjoying alcoholic beverages. Mr. Client has presented for therapy for longstanding issues related to alcohol abuse. When he searches and views the pictures, will it affect his trust in Dr. Jones’s ability to help him? ● When Dr. Jones gets home from work, he posts on his status update how exhausted, frustrated, and angry he is because he had a particularly difficult day at work. The post does not violate confidentiality yet how might Mr. Client, who had a session with Dr. Jones that day, interpret this post? 3. Hide profiles—Social media profiles should be hidden from search engines to remove profiles from public searches on Google, Bing, or Yahoo. This makes the therapist’s profile less easily accessible. 4. Limit posts—Global positioning system (GPS) functions should be turned off so that geotagging of pictures is not possible. Clinicians should not post their schedule, vacation plans, or upcoming event locations. 5. Review profiles—Clinicians should review their profiles periodically to ensure sensitive and private information is not available to the public through photos or videos and should consider the impact viewing those would have on a client. 6. Protect passwords—Passwords should be at least 14 characters long, created with numbers, special characters, uppercase and lowercase letters, and should be changed every 60 days. 7. Search online persona—Clinicians should google themselves regularly to see what information is available about them on the internet and social media platforms. 8. Discussions with clients—Clinicians should consider the benefit of having explicit discussions with clients about their expectations and policies regarding social media use. decision about self-disclosure and presentation on these sites are in line with ethical boundaries. They offer several recommendations to clinicians who choose to use a dating app or site: 1. Boundaries should be explicit in the initial informed consent forms. The form should state that there will be no communication between the clinician and client on dating sites, including messaging, swiping, or liking. 2. Keep profile information to a minimum. Do not include political orientation, religious views, place of employment, or substance use information. 3. Although there are no specific dress codes in ethics codes, be aware of posting photos that are too sexual, revealing, or inappropriate. 4. The therapist should not swipe or send a “like” to a past or current client. 5. If the therapist is liked by a current client on the app, a direct conversation with the client should take place
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Book Code: PYTX1325
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