Characterizing Social Media and Digital Data Use in Mental Health Therapy from Therapist and Patient Perspectives (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Southwick ◽  
Rebecca Suh ◽  
Elissa C. Kranzler ◽  
Raina M Merchant

BACKGROUND Incorporating insights from social media into the patient provider encounter is increasingly being explored in healthcare settings. Less is known about the utility of this data in mental health therapy. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to prospectively investigate and characterize how social media and digital data is used in mental health therapy from both the patient and mental health therapist perspective. METHODS Patients enrolled in mental health therapy and mental health therapists were interviewed using a semi-structured interview. All interviews were transcribed and coded using a deductive framework analysis. Themes and sub-themes were identified. Participants completed a socio-demographic survey while mental health therapists also completed a behavioral norms and elicitation survey. RESULTS Seventeen participants: mental health therapists (48%, 8) and patients (52%, 9), were interviewed. Overall, participants identified four themes and nine sub-themes. Themes were current data collection practices, social media and digital data in therapy, advantages of social media and digital data in therapy, and disadvantages of social media and digital data in therapy. Most sub-themes were related to advantages of and disadvantages of incorporating digital data in mental health therapy. Advantage sub-themes included convenience objective, builds rapport, and user-friendly while disadvantage sub-themes were digital data/social media is non-reflective, ethically ambiguous, and non-generalizable. Injunctive and descriptive normative beliefs mapped onto two advantage sub-themes: convenience and objectivity. CONCLUSIONS This qualitative pilot study established advantages and disadvantages of social media and digital data use in mental health therapy. Patients and therapists highlighted similar concerns and uses. This study indicated that overall, both patients and therapists are interested in and comfortable to use and discuss social media and digital data in mental health therapy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 131-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan House

SummaryUse of social media by people with mental health problems, and especially those who are prone to self-harm, has potential advantages and disadvantages. This poses a dilemma about how and by how much the form and content of social media sites should be regulated. Unfortunately, participation in the public debate about this dilemma has been restricted and high-profile discussion of necessary action has been focused almost entirely on how much suppression of content is justified. Professional bodies, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists, should be doing much more than they are to shape how the debate is conducted.



2021 ◽  
pp. 152483992110646
Author(s):  
Marco Zenone ◽  
Nora Kenworthy ◽  
Skye Barbic

Mounting evidence suggests that problematic adolescent social media use is associated with poor mental health. To respond to increased adolescent mental health concerns, health promoters increasingly rely on social media initiatives to promote their resources, programs, and services. This creates a paradoxical situation where social-media-linked adverse mental health outcomes are addressed using the same tools and platforms that can contribute to the development of such issues. It also highlights several areas of needed critical assessment in health promotion usage of social media platform features and products, such as addictive platform design, targeted marketing tools, data collection practices, impacts on underserved groups, and conflicts of interest. To advance subsequent action on these tensions, we offer three recommendations for health promoters that build upon existing scholarship and initiatives, including adapting ethical guidelines for health promoters using social media, adopting conflicts of interest policies, and promoting interdisciplinary scholarship.



2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-69
Author(s):  
Dagmar Kopčanová ◽  
Bibiana Filípková

Abstract The content of this scientific study is based on the qualitative analysis of selected answers of parents, in the framework of semi-structured interview. The qualitative research is apart of bigger research work P-155/A, dealing with mental health of children in family and school settings. The main goal is to learn and analyse the empirical experience and views of participants, related to joint custody and shared care. The research sample consisted of randomly selected 9 participants who visited Výskumný ústav detskej psychológie apatopsychológie on behalf of some problems regarding custody after divorce/separation. In this contribution the parents´ attitudes towards mutual communication of former partners/parents, functioning of joint custody and shared care and some views related to some limits in this form of shared parenting have been analysed. Some valuable remarks with regard to the need of multi-professional team work, addressed to parents within the process of their divorce/separation proved to be very useful. Parents proposed they would extremely welcome some more help from mental health professionals and their crises intervention actions. On behalf of discussion we notice that the juridical institute of joint custody and shared care is a very important tool, however, some legislative changes of this law should be still done. Concluding the study, we state that in spite of some methodological problems – like a limited number of research participants, we believe that the results can serve as a basis for the next deeper research, bringing more proposals for improvement in this field.



2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 309-316
Author(s):  
D. Sridhar ◽  
◽  
◽  
V. Kathiresan
Keyword(s):  




2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-143
Author(s):  
Hilary Holmes ◽  
Alba E. Lara ◽  
Gregory S. Brown

Background: Social media is a relatively new and impactful way to connect millions of people around the world. The intersection of mental health and social media is a poorly studied, yet important area of research. Specifically, with regard to college-aged youth, social media can potentially offer an educational tool to enhance mental health awareness or augment treatment when it is used for professional purposes by mental health advocates or healthcare professionals. There is also the added risk of disinformation, cyberbullying, and privacy breaches. Objective: This review aims to assess the current state of social media use and its influence on mental health, especially in college-age youth. Methods: The authors of this paper utilized PubMed and Medline databases to review the most recent experimental studies and literature reviews available on the topic of mental health and social media. Results: Abstracts and relevant papers were read in full, and information from these studies was cited accordingly. Conclusion: The authors conclude that although more research needs to be conducted, social media may offer benefits for mental health awareness, education, and treatment, specifically in populations such as college-age youth.



2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alanna McCrory

UNSTRUCTURED Users of highly visual social media (HVSM), such as Snapchat and Instagram, share their messages through images, rather than relying on words. A significant proportion of people that use these platforms are adolescents. Previous research reveals mixed evidence regarding the impact of online social technologies on this age group’s mental wellbeing, but it is uncertain whether the psychological effects of visual content alone differ from text-driven social media. This scoping review maps existing literature that has published evidence about highly visual social media, specifically its psychological impact on young people. Nine electronic databases and grey literature from 2010 until March 2019 were reviewed for articles describing any aspect of visual social media, young people and their mental health. The screening process retrieved 239 articles. With the application of eligibility criteria, this figure was reduced to 25 articles for analysis. Results indicate a paucity of data that exclusively examines HVSM. The predominance of literature relies on quantitative methods to achieve its objectives. Many findings are inconsistent and lack the richness that qualitative data may provide to explore the reasons for theses mixed findings.



2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan Kaji ◽  
Maggie Bushman

BACKGROUND Adolescents with depression often turn to social media to express their feelings, for support, and for educational purposes. Little is known about how Reddit, a forum-based platform, compares to Twitter, a newsfeed platform, when it comes to content surrounding depression. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to identify differences between Reddit and Twitter concerning how depression is discussed and represented online. METHODS A content analysis of Reddit posts and Twitter posts, using r/depression and #depression, identified signs of depression using the DSM-IV criteria. Other youth-related topics, including School, Family, and Social Activity, and the presence of medical or promotional content were also coded for. Relative frequency of each code was then compared between platforms as well as the average DSM-IV score for each platform. RESULTS A total of 102 posts were included in this study, with 53 Reddit posts and 49 Twitter posts. Findings suggest that Reddit has more content with signs of depression with 92% than Twitter with 24%. 28.3% of Reddit posts included medical content compared to Twitter with 18.4%. 53.1% of Twitter posts had promotional content while Reddit posts didn’t contain promotional content. CONCLUSIONS Users with depression seem more willing to discuss their mental health on the subreddit r/depression than on Twitter. Twitter users also use #depression with a wider variety of topics, not all of which actually involve a case of depression.



Author(s):  
Piotr Szamrowski ◽  
Adam Pawlewicz

The main objective of this paper is to identify the platforms and social media tools utilized by the brewing industry in communication with the stakeholders, mainly with potential clients. In addition, the study sought to determine the nature of the published content, identify those responsible for their management, and present the advantages and disadvantages of their conduct in communication and creating the image of the company. The results indicate that only 25% of the surveyed companies do not use social media in PR. This applies only to small enterprises, with regional character. All the major brewing companies in their public relations activities use at least one type of social media, focusing in most cases on social networking (Facebook) and Video Sharing (YouTube). In addition, some of the largest brands included in the individual equity groups have their own social media channels used to communicate with the stakeholders. General promotion of company products and, what is very important, creating a dialogue with social media platform community, were seen as the most important benefits of using social media.



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