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Google and Facebook raise new issues for therapists and their clients

Posted on March 30, 2010 by Dissent

Dana Scarton reports:

As his patient lay unconscious in an emergency room from an overdose of sedatives, psychiatrist Damir Huremovic was faced with a moral dilemma: A friend of the patient had forwarded to Huremovic a suicidal e-mail from the patient that included a link to a Web site and blog he wrote. Should Huremovic go online and check it out, even without his patient’s consent?

Huremovic decided yes; after all, the Web site was in the public domain and it might contain some potentially important information for treatment. When Huremovic clicked on the blog, he found quotations such as this: “Death makes angels of us all and gives us wings.” A final blog post read: “I wish I didn’t wake up.” Yet as Huremovic continued scanning the patient’s personal photographs and writings, he began to feel uncomfortable, that perhaps he’d crossed some line he shouldn’t have.

Across the country, therapists are facing similar situations and conflicted feelings. When Huremovic, director of psychosomatic medicine services at Nassau University Medical Center in New York, recounted his vignette last year at an American Psychiatric Association meeting and asked whether others would have read the suicidal man’s blog, his audience responded with resounding calls — of both “yes!” and “no!” One thing was clear: How and when a therapist should use the Internet — and even whether he or she should — are questions subject to vigorous debate.

Read more in The Washington Post.

Related posts:

  • When a Patient’s Death is Broadcast Without Permission
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