Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Times Are Changing for Social Media Role in Field

When America Online was the “go to” place for electronic interpersonal communication, mental health and addiction chat rooms (like "Friends of Bill W.") were created to provide anonymous virtual forums for support and empowerment. At the time, these were considered to be "novel," but not really a part of any organizational or treatment strategy.

Today, the landscape (and the role) for social media has changed; and behavioral health and social service organizations without social media strategies are at a competitive disadvantage. [Note: Your plan can be to not use social media in your particular market niche, but that needs to be a reasoned and overt decision.] Social media is all about enabling communication and collaboration; communities of people gather on-line to share information, knowledge, and opinions—and these are your future partners, consumers, funders, etc.

How is social media being used in our field? Let me give you a few examples:

• CIGNA's consumer outreach web site, "It's Time to Feel Better," links to videos posted on YouTube and to podcasts while providing interactive self-assessments, all of which seek to foster CIGNA's image as consumer-centric.

• SAMHSA/CSAT's National Recovery Month utilizes Facebook to support its recovery community and to promote recovery-oriented events, speakers, and initiatives.

Another great example of the use of social media in our field is OneRecovery. David Metzler, founder and chief executive officer of OneRecovery, says that the focus of OneRecovery is to provide a range of wellness tools, risk assessment algorithms, a goal tracking tool, and the ability to quickly link users with a pre-selected circle of friends and professionals when needed.

Mr. Metzler will be a panelist in New Technologies Increasing Consumer Self-Service in Health and Social Services at this year’s Institute for Behavioral Health Informatics, where you can meet him and other innovative leaders in our field. If you are unable to join us this year, stay tuned on October 14, 15, and 16 for our new, live on-line coverage of the Institute!

Sincerely,
John F. Talbot, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President
OPEN MINDS

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For more on using social media in our field, "Mental Health Recovery: Using Social Networking and New Media," a presentation given at the 2008 OPEN MINDS Institute for Behavioral Health Informatics. This is FREE for the next sixty days to all registered OPEN MINDS Circle members.

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