6 Easy Ways Learn about SKYPE & Mental Health Delivery

One of the TeleMental Health Institute LINKEDIN group members wrote me privately to ask me to draft an email that he can send to his state association listerv to help his colleagues learn more about Skype. Please let me know if there’s any other information you might need about practicing online.
Marlene

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Here are 5 options for learning more about Skype:

1. To learn about Skype or any other aspect of working online in mental health, LINKEDIN is a social networking website that makes communicating with colleagues very easy. You might want to start by going to the special LINKEDIN group already developed by Marlene Maheu of the TELEMENTAL HEALTH INSTITUTE to join over 500 other mental health professionals discussing these topics in a responsible manner. Just click on this link www.linkedin.com and LinkedIn will ask you to register.

Then you may search for the group in the search box in the upper right corner of the page by typing in “TeleMental Health Institute” (without the ” ” marks).

You can try this link if you are already a member of LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/TeleMental-Health-Institute-TMHI-2246364?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

2. You may want to consider signing up for the TeleMental Health Institute’s newsletter to get concise, well-researched “telemental health” and online therapy information directly from the Institute’s website: http://telementalhealth.com You’ll find the newsletter registration box in the upper right hand corner of the webpage.

3. While you are there, you might notice that TMHI has a 1-unit CE course now available for $27. It was recorded in June of 2011 and details can be found here: http://telementalhealth.com/skype

4. The Institute also has another 1-unit CE course available for professionals who seek a HIPAA-compliant alternative to Skype:
http://telementalhealth.com/HIPAA-compliant-alternatives-to-skype

5. If you are on the TMHI homepage, you will see that Dr. Maheu created a short video in reaction to a New York Times article, “When Your Therapist Is Only a Click Away,” that featured her picture in reference to Skype. In the video, she alerts mental health practitioners about the dangers of Skype and several other pertinent issues to practicing online, such as licensing, informed consent, and arranging for emergency backup.

6. Additionally, you can search this site, Telehealth.net, using the search box in the upper right hand corner of the page, for other entries about Skype.

Marlene M. Maheu, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the TeleMental Health Institute, Inc., offering a Certificate training program in TeleMental Health for telepsychiatry, telepsychology, telesocial work, and online counseling. Academic books authored by Dr. Maheu and colleagues include eHealth, Telehealth and Telemedicine and The Mental Health Professional & the New Technologies.