Digital is just a fad.
‘Digital is just a fad’ ‘Digital is just a distraction from the real problems facing healthcare’ ‘Digital is just another thing to learn and I don’t have time’ These are all challenges I’ve recently heard from healthcare professionals recently who are reticent and doubtful about the value of spending time developing their understanding of social media and digital tools/services. Everyone is busy and everyone is overstretched. So why should their attention be focused here when they are so many other more pressing priorities? Their wariness is in sharp contrast to a talk on widening digital participation by Bob Gann at a recent mHealthHabitat breakfast discussion in which he shared the following three stark facts: Low health literacy is closely linked to poor outcomes and mortality Information and services are increasingly digital – digital skills are increasingly linked to health literacy Those who are least likely to be online are those who most need health and care services. If digital skills are important for people needing health and care services then they are also important for practitioners who are delivering those services. Increasingly, practitioners need to incorporate digital mediation in to their day to day work – helping people find and make sense of the best health information and digital tools online. Digital skills aren’t just technical skills – they are skills in appraising information online, they are skills in participating in online communities to maximise their beneficial effects and minimise harm; they are skills in understanding whether a mobile app is based on evidenced clinical effectiveness and deciding if you’re ok with how it uses your data; they are...
#DearMentalHealthProfessionals – Twitter as a learning resource
There are all sorts of compelling reasons for health and social care practitioners to use social media, both as part of their professional development and in their day-to-day practice. But yesterday a Twitter conversation around the hashtag #DearMentalHealthProfessionals gave a visceral and powerful sense of the potential afforded by Twitter to be an invaluable learning tool for every mental health practitioner. You can find a storify of the tweets (so far) here. Amanda O’Connell set up the hashtag in the morning and started tweeting messages, from her own experience, to mental health professionals. The conversation grew and spread throughout the day with all sorts of different perspectives – from negative experiences through to appreciation and many in-between. In the NHS we spend a lot of time and effort organising events and groups and activities to ask people for their feedback and help improve services. And it is important that we do so. But there is something about the spontaneity, the starting point and the ownership of this conversation which provides a most compelling argument for any mental health practitioner to engage with Twitter as a platform to learn, share and contribute. A big thank you and congratulations to Amanda, both for setting up the hashtag and for her encouragement when I asked if I could write a quick blog post about it 🙂...
A is for anonymity – NHS professionals online
Online personal identities will be a key theme of my virtual ethnography. I’m curious about the names, avatars and biographies we choose to have online, particularly for people using social media to engage with others on the topic of mental distress in a personal and/or professional capacity. Qian and Scott (2007) explore the affordances and risks of blogging in relation to the subjective self. Their research suggests that sharing personal thoughts and experiences in the virtual public domain carries risks, with possible real-life costs, and as a result anonymous identities and pseudonyms are common place. The mental health literature clearly shows that online anonymity for highly stigmatised conditions is one of the primary benefits identified by people who have lived experience. Schrank et al have identified that people use the internet for health-related information as it affords anonymity and egalitarianism (2012). In addition to anonymity, Powell & Clarke (2006 & 2007) also found that people using the internet for mental health information value its possibilities for providing privacy, convenience and accessibility. I have found quite a bit of research literature related to people using the web in relation to their personal experience of mental health difficulties but far less about people who are working within statutory services (however, there are quite a few blog posts on the subject). This is still a tricky area for many, with much of the professional guidance focusing on avoiding negative consequences and less on the potential benefits. I have chosen to use my real name and avatar. It didn’t really occur for me to do otherwise at the time. It does mean I...Social media connections – can you help me with my research?
Whilst wading my way through my literature review, I’m also starting to think about the research I will be undertaking next year, and am keen to find a social media site to focus on for my study. I am interested in if/how social media affords the opportunity to shape, influence, deconstruct and do all sorts of interesting and disruptive things which challenge the received comfy and paternalistic order of things, that was once (and still largely is) perpetuated by large institutions such as the NHS. The new NHS Confederation briefing alive and clicking gives a glimpse into the potential (and threat in the eyes of some) of social media to niggle away at this relatively snug world. In my discussions, opinions vary from dismissal through to downright horror, with the odd bit of curiosity and occasional enthusiasm in the middle. I think it still holds ‘hobby’ status for most people i.e. not to be taken that seriously… but that is beginning to change. In my research I really want to get to the heart of what is happening in terms of relationships and connections (or not) between people experiencing mental health difficulties, mental health providers and mental health professionals online. I’m interested in themes of power, Iabelling, stigma and identity. The sorts of questions I’m interested in are: If/how are social media influencing and shaping relationships? What does it mean for those involved? To what extent do social media enable people to throw things out of kilter and re-order the shape of things? What disruptive forces are at work (for example, humour)? Is it just more of the same in...about.me
Victoria Betton
victoria betton
director mHabitat | NHS | social media & mental health doctorate | interested in digital inclusion | parma violets fiend | http://codesigndigitalhealth.co.uk
