Making Mental Health Social Media More Supportive and Informative

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Across social media platforms, there is a space dedicated to helping connect mental health professionals with each other. Some spaces are exclusively for those in private practice in a local region, some for those therapists studying or actively using a specific intervention or theory, and some are created to connect professionals across the globe to share ideas and experiences. An overwhelming majority of the content posted provides inspiring and insightful information that is valuable to fellow mental health clinicians. Social media platforms have been a great resource to keep professionals on pace with ever-changing legislation and regulations. Social media has also been the go-to source for support on cases, intervention ideas, referrals, training information, or simply to connect with other professionals in mental health.

Despite the wealth of information available, there is also a dark side to some of these posts that occurs when well-intended clinicians engage in a debate or challenge the content, and the discourse quickly turns ugly. Occasionally, the conversations evolve into clinicians attacking others’ competency, or threatening to make an ethics board complaint.

How can we maintain the value that these online communities bring to our clinical practices without the slow erosion of conflict and hurt feelings? Here are five ways to positively preserve these online communities:

1. Identify Your Purpose. Prior to posting or creating an online social community, identify two reasons for posting or creating the group. Maybe you want to help local professionals connect to resources and other professionals in their area. Perhaps you have a mental health-related business you’d like to promote to increase your profit margin. Keep your why on top of your mind.

2. Check Yourself. After identifying intent, be sure to check in with your current emotions. Are you feeling particularly vulnerable after receiving poor feedback from a supervisor, client, or colleague? Is your stress level high because of demands put on you by work or home? Our decision-making skills are not at our finest when we are operating in a challenging, vulnerable mindset. We’ve all been there, something is burning us up inside and innocent bystanders become unintended victims of our wrath. Giving that temporary anger a place on the internet could blemish your professional integrity permanently.

3. Correct With Care. Say you notice improper usage of dated terminology or a jumbled mess of the acronym HIPAA. Rather than engaging in a conversation and correcting the error by attacking the writer’s intelligence or capabilities as a counselor, you can use a mixture of empathy, self-awareness, and purpose. If you follow the three steps in your response, you will keep the conversation from going down a hurtful, “dirty deleting,” “comments-turned-off” path.

4. Maintain Professional Integrity. Remember your post reflects you as a clinician. Make sure your post emulates this. You are posting as a professional, therefore, your content needs to be clinically sound. Include disclaimers or trigger warnings out of respect for fellow clinicians. If you edit a post, such should be noted to ensure that responses are reflective of the original, pre-edited post.

5. Put Value Receiving Feedback. Professional, constructive feedback is typically not meant to undermine the clinician’s integrity. Try not to take offense, but rather view it as an opportunity for deeper reflection or consideration of an opposing opinion. It might also be meant to spare you from making future mistakes, especially in the case of misusing HIPAA. Take a breath and ingest the feedback in a healthy manner, rather than retorting in anger.

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As Covid-19 has made our typical networking professional development events increasingly virtual, we rely heavily on our online communities. Our ability to exchange business cards and connect with other professionals on a personal level has been greatly compromised. Let’s create spaces where knowledge is shared, opinions are respected, and professionals connect in a supportive, encouraging environment.