Patients beware! Don't let your shrink 'friend' or 'follow' you

USA TODAY columnist Steven Petrow offers advice about living in the Digital Age.

True or false: There are strict rules and regulations covering mental health professionals using social media.

To my surprise, I learned that the answer is “false” even though there are more than 500,000 professionals practicing in the U.S. today, treating more than 17 million Americans, with many of those therapists and clients sharing their personal tidbits on social media pages.

I am one of those millions and until last year had a psychologist with a robust Facebook presence – and no privacy settings. For a while there, Facebook kept suggesting “Dr. E” as a friend since we knew people in common (which made me wonder whether my friends were his patients). Regardless, it sure made me uncomfortable to see his profile photo come up time and again on my page.

After a while, curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on his profile. Yes, I realize this is my bad but I’m human, too.  Now I could see a dozen photos of him, some of them on a beach shirtless, others of him from high school with very bad hair, many with comments from his friends and relatives. Soon enough, I found myself thinking much more about his personal life than any patient should.

Before social media, psychotherapists had boundaries regarding what they disclosed to patients. That was a good thing. So where are the boundaries today?

“[T]here are no firm guidelines for psychiatrists regarding how to manage information on the Internet,” reports Academic Psychiatry. The article’s authors added that while “Facebook users commonly list their sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, hometown, and political affiliation in their profiles,” mental health practitioners typically don’t — and shouldn’t.

Although social media is not regulated, at least not yet, “psychologists have special ethical issues they need to think through to determine how this technology is going to affect their work,” wrote the director of ethics of the American Psychological Association. My recommendation: At the very least, therapists on social networking sites should be highly selective about what they post. They should activate all privacy settings — and check them frequently.

Nor, however, is Dr. E. an outlier. A recent study concluded that about one-third percent of medical students and residents don’t use their privacy settings. That’s considered a good barometer of the extent of problem in the mental health profession, reported the authors.

“Your psychologist should have made it hard for you to find him,” Eric Harris, who serves on a task force on telepsychology guidelines for, told me. I agree, although I also acknowledge my own responsibility in letting my fingers get ahead of me. At least Dr. E didn’t attempt to friend me – or I him.

When I finally told Dr. E. about how his lack of privacy settings left him exposed, I wasn’t surprised by his answer: He had no idea, as he’s generally clueless about technology. Still, by a month later he hadn’t changed them, so I decided to block him. Much better than individuals dealing with one therapist at a time would be for the powers that be to hold their practitioners to a set of social media rules.

THE TAKEAWAY

— In talking to prospective therapists, ask if they have social media guidelines. Increasing numbers do and they’ll often cover “friending,” fanning,” “following,” and “blogging.”

— Even if they don’t have their own written guidelines, ask questions early on: “What is your social media presence?” “What are your boundaries online?”

— Keep your curiosity in check. Yes, it’s okay to do a Google search on a practitioner’s credentials and patient reviews. But stop there. Don’t Zillow their home. Don’t search for their political contributions. Don’t invite them to “friend” or even “link in” with you.

Agree or disagree with my advice? Let me know in the comments section.

Submit your question to Steven at stevenpetrow@earthlink.net. You can also follow Steven on Twitter: @StevenPetrow. Or like him on Facebook at facebook.com/stevenpetrow.