4 ms·

I wish there was a way to give a psychologist all my online tracks (down to Slashdot posts when I was 12), context of what I was thinking around the posts, and

by jauer 9y ago

I wish there was a way to give a psychologist all my online tracks (down to Slashdot posts when I was 12), context of what I was thinking around the posts, and along with the usual story of my life. Then diff it against "normal" and provide advice--"because of X you seem to react Y so maybe try Z".

quanticle 9y ago
Dear god, I hope there isn't. While my online persona is pretty much the same as my real-life persona, I know quite a few people who have more than one online identity. I would hate to have someone characterized with a mental illness because their psychologist came across their old tumblr or livejournal.
- busituykdu1222 9y ago
  The disagreement between the two of you is kind of paralleling an emerging debate over trends in mental health assessment research. Right now, there are large grants (from the federal government) being dispersed to develop systems to basically scrape patients' social media info and smartphone data (including things like GPS, accelerometer data, etc.) to predict outcomes. There's other related research going on too. Traditionally, assessment methods work more like an instrument: you introduce a stimulus and record a response. I don't think that's going to change, because of various advantages of that sort of data, but the utility of other types of data is being actively discussed. You have privacy issues like are being discussed here, but there are also practical issues like: what if your severely mentally ill patient doesn't have a Facebook account they use regularly? What if they don't even own a phone, or use it, which common? Looking for patients on the web isn't uncommon. It's not really so much your depressed office manager, it's your patient who is being court-ordered for some service because they pulled a gun on their girlfriend and used the butt of it to knock their 2-year-old over. Imagine that they come in, and you're supposed to be monitoring their danger to self or others, and aren't willing to say much to you, and won't consent to have you contact a third party, or don't even have a third party to contact. If a situation arose where you could find something on Google, would you refrain from searching it? What about an online public government-run database? What about reddit? What about Facebook? Where do you draw the line? Should the courts be ordering that psychologists and psychiatrists be able to scrape your phone? Install an invasive monitoring app? What if you haven't been convicted yet? What if you aren't charged with anything, but have been deemed incompetent to make your own medical decisions?
  - quanticle 9y ago
    If a situation arose where you could find something on Google, would you refrain from searching it? What about an online public government-run database? What about reddit? What about Facebook? Where do you draw the line? The courts have already answered this question for a different audience: the police. There is already a rich legal body of knowledge and practice that governs where and when searches are appropriate. That should be the minimum baseline for mental health professionals. If a police officer, a person trained and vetted by the legal system to detect threats and use (up to lethal) force to end them cannot access this data, there is no way that some damn civilian should have access. If you want access, get a court order, just like a police officer, just like a state attorney. No court order? Fuck right off. In your case, I can easily see a judge saying that the person in question is legally mandated to turn over social media accounts for some period of time as a condition of their sentence or parole.

by jauer 9y ago

quanticle 9y ago

Dear god, I hope there isn't. While my online persona is pretty much the same as my real-life persona, I know quite a few people who have more than one online identity. I would hate to have someone characterized with a mental illness because their psychologist came across their old tumblr or livejournal.

busituykdu1222 9y ago
The disagreement between the two of you is kind of paralleling an emerging debate over trends in mental health assessment research. Right now, there are large grants (from the federal government) being dispersed to develop systems to basically scrape patients' social media info and smartphone data (including things like GPS, accelerometer data, etc.) to predict outcomes. There's other related research going on too. Traditionally, assessment methods work more like an instrument: you introduce a stimulus and record a response. I don't think that's going to change, because of various advantages of that sort of data, but the utility of other types of data is being actively discussed. You have privacy issues like are being discussed here, but there are also practical issues like: what if your severely mentally ill patient doesn't have a Facebook account they use regularly? What if they don't even own a phone, or use it, which common? Looking for patients on the web isn't uncommon. It's not really so much your depressed office manager, it's your patient who is being court-ordered for some service because they pulled a gun on their girlfriend and used the butt of it to knock their 2-year-old over. Imagine that they come in, and you're supposed to be monitoring their danger to self or others, and aren't willing to say much to you, and won't consent to have you contact a third party, or don't even have a third party to contact. If a situation arose where you could find something on Google, would you refrain from searching it? What about an online public government-run database? What about reddit? What about Facebook? Where do you draw the line? Should the courts be ordering that psychologists and psychiatrists be able to scrape your phone? Install an invasive monitoring app? What if you haven't been convicted yet? What if you aren't charged with anything, but have been deemed incompetent to make your own medical decisions?
- quanticle 9y ago
  If a situation arose where you could find something on Google, would you refrain from searching it? What about an online public government-run database? What about reddit? What about Facebook? Where do you draw the line? The courts have already answered this question for a different audience: the police. There is already a rich legal body of knowledge and practice that governs where and when searches are appropriate. That should be the minimum baseline for mental health professionals. If a police officer, a person trained and vetted by the legal system to detect threats and use (up to lethal) force to end them cannot access this data, there is no way that some damn civilian should have access. If you want access, get a court order, just like a police officer, just like a state attorney. No court order? Fuck right off. In your case, I can easily see a judge saying that the person in question is legally mandated to turn over social media accounts for some period of time as a condition of their sentence or parole.