Online and Distance Behavioral Health Practitioners: Ethics and Risk-management Challenges

Course overview

This webinar will explore cutting-edge ethical issues arising out of behavioral health practitioners' growing use of digital technology, electronic interventions, and online social media to deliver services and communicate with clients. Moving beyond introductory ethics concepts, the webinar will examine complex ethical issues related to behavioral health practitioners' and clients' use of technology such as social networking sites, e-therapy, chat rooms, moderated forums, Web-based psychoeducation, self-guided Web-based intervention, video conferencing, telephone therapy, avatar therapy, online expert systems, search engines, email exchanges, text messages, client blogs, and electronic health records. The webinar will focus on key ethical challenges related to privacy, confidentiality, privileged communication, informed consent, boundaries, nontraditional interventions, and documentation, among others. Dr. Reamer will review state-of-the-art ethical, regulatory, and practice standards and guidelines. He will discuss practical strategies to protect clients and prevent ethics complaints and ethics-related litigation. Dr. Reamer will make extensive use of case material.