‘Online Mental Health’ at Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life, Page 7

The first ever charity digital music download service has just launched, raising funds to provide essential information on mental health and help tackle the stigma associated with mental health problems. Run by a Scottish mental health charity, the drive is a great way for fans of Scottish music everywhere to grab some great tracks, while helping to raise awareness of mental health issues.

Practitioners interested in the practice and process of online therapy can find a new paper on the topic available in our section dedicated to online training and development resources. Drawing on an evidence base of over 700,000 words of online counselling and therapy, the paper highlights several simple observations which, surprisingly, have not yet received significant exploration in the academic literature.

Over the last year, I’ve been contacted by practitioners ranging from members of the clergy to clinical psychologists, asking about online supervision. After having so many conversations about online clincial supervision in recent months, I’ve finally created a new section of the site specifically aimed at online supervision and other resources for online training and professional development.

The ISMHO’s ad hoc handling of evidence that one of the organization’s founders inadvertently published confidential client material on a public website without consent, and the subsequent expulsion of the whistleblower, highlight several constructive opportunities for improving and reforming the ISMHO and bringing a more explicit ethical component to its management. This document outlines seven suggested principles for raising the standard of ethical and competent management within the International Society for Mental Health Online.

Two weeks after well documented facts were published indicating unethical behaviour by an ISMHO founder, the mental health organization’s board of directors has formally expelled the whistleblower for activities contrary to the best interests of ISMHO — i.e., for telling the truth. The result of the board’s secret deliberations comes just days after board members misled the ISMHO membership, claiming the APA had found that no unethical behaviour had ever occurred.