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Therapy Over IP Draws the Young, Isolated
Lucas123 writes "Psychiatrists say VoIP technology is more popular with patients than even in-person therapy when it comes to counseling — especially for their younger patients who are less intimidated by it. Along with many patients who like the convenience, telepsychiatry is a necessity for others who live in rural areas or are in, prisons, nursing homes or hospital ICUs. 'We've had just over 60,000 patient encounters. To my knowledge, only six have refused to be seen via teleconferencing,' said Dr. Avrim Fishkind, an emergency psychiatrist. 'We're tailor made for telemedicine because we don't check people's livers. We just talk.'" I wonder whether Eliza can be sued for practicing medicine without a license.
The summary makes it sound like the shrinks are using an advanced technology, not unlike our present day telephones, to enable delivery of their services.
I was actually wondering just a few days ago if VoIP was used much to schedule therapy or counseling sessions, mainly because the nearest psych who specializes in my situation is about three hours away, and I simply don't have the gas money (nor do most people). ...so it's really great to see technology being used positively. Yep.
Assuming that legit therapy can be attained this way of course.
Actually going to a psychiatrists office seems like a daunting task, but if the whole thing was done over VoIP... somehow it seems easier.
It's all well and good until the psychiatrist has a patient with Webcamophobia.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Or at least Higgins tells me so.
/* MAGIC THEATRE
ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY
MADMEN ONLY */
Most people calling a shrink just need someone to listen to them:
I think I'm going to start up a new business; Pyschic Psychiatrist.
You don't need to come in for a visit. You don't need to call me using VOIP. You don't even need to know you have a problem. You don't need to know I'm treating you. I'll just listen to your troubles from afar by reading your brain and send you a bill in the mail.
Just so you know- I've read the brains of everyone on slashdot- you're all screwed up the head- but I've listend to your problems.
Please send $5,000 each payable to Oswald McWeany, PO BOX 13X, Psychicville, MA
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
he can was football and TV on the other side while listening to you.
Psychiatric profession uses medications as well as psychotherapy.
Psychology does not use medications to supplement psychotherapy.
If this really is Psychiatric, you can expect Co$ and the Armies of Tom Cruise to assail it.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
And get recorded on video and audio, just don't plan on running for office or holding any important positions once you do this kids.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Web Therapy came up with this idea a looong time ago. Go on, follow the link. I'll wait. You can thank me later.
Body language is huge in therapy, because a lot of what therapy is consists of getting the patient to talk about things he or she finds uncomfortable. Discomfort can be hidden much more easily in a person's tone of voice than in their body language cues.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
This is truly a privacy disaster in the making.
No psychiatrist willing to put their patients in a position this vulnerable should keep their license. Even if the entire session is fully encrypted, the patient has no ability to tell whether the psychiatrist is recording, has other people in the room, etc...
This is one of the things we did for for senior projects at my university before smart phones became popular.
We developed a system for audio-visual telepresence for counseling and rehabilitation for people unable to visit a facility either from disability, lack of transportation or by legal restraint.
Stephen Hawking is here for his 11 o'clock.
Therapy over IP is nothing new. It's called "Internet Relay Chat", the original social network.
Psychiatrists have long since given up on therapy. They figured out some time ago if you reduce everything to a "15 minute med check" that you can run people through your office like cattle and keep charging full price for it. This is just another way to turn the crank faster.
It's actually pretty funny at times! Check it out if you have time - http://www.lstudio.com/web-therapy/
If I only had mod points! I thought of the same thing immediately.
Remember, stay with Fiona Wallice as your therapist, because going to a different therapist would be a breach of her intellectual property =)
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
For those who prefer such things.
https://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9224091/Web_based_counseling_Telepsychiatry_is_taking_off
Oops, didn't mean to post anonymously before... Check out her web series. It's pretty funny actually at times. - http://www.lstudio.com/web-therapy/
meta-x psychoanalyze-emo
Does this sound like fly-by-night operations setting up new pill-mills. like the old Florida "Pain Clinics". http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501263_162-2872835-501263.html
from Xanax, to prozac, to Ritalian, psyciatric drugs are especially prone to being used and abused recreationally. All of which are rountinely advertised in spam mail. Is this really any diffrent than illegal online pharamcies, except a grey veneer of legality provided by licensed doctors selling prescriptions(see above).
This is putting a new fancy name on an old dirty scheme.
Shrinks aren't really practicing medicine.
It's not really about the technology because using the phone is absolutely not new, it's about the re-purposing of it. Usually phones are only used for business or personal conversation and less often they're used for the practice of medicine because if it were any other field of medicine, it would be considered inexact and risky to not physically be seeing a patient. Even in psychology, I'm aware of it being seen as a less intensive way of seeing a patient because the doctor can't physically see the patient's expression, their mannerisms, etc. and those are helpful for diagnosing a patient -- especially one who may be suffering from a disorder involving loss of contact with reality or difficulty distinguishing the truth because in those cases, sometimes you can't know whether a patient is giving the information needed unless you're looking at them. The use of this method for therapy is important because not every patient can make it in person. The elderly who are depressed having watched all their friends pass and possibly their spouse may be too fragile to make the trip once or twice a week. Other terminally-ill patients -- regardless of age -- may need to be undergoing serious treatment such as dialysis, IV medicine treatment, or other intensive treatments basically anchoring them to a hospital where their psychologist -- or one most appropriate to treat them -- may not work. This is a great use of a technology which has otherwise been abused as a means for bad customer service, incessant telemarketing, and having someone call you when you're 100mi away to ask you where the milk is.
The therapy industry is shooting itself in the foot with this. If therapy can be done remotely, it can be outsourced. They're turning their business into a call center job.
(This is probably the future of medicine. You'll talk to somebody in a call center, and if it's a serious problem, you get escalated to second or third level support.)
Therapy over Internet Protocol?
THoIP?
I hope to God that this term doesn't take off.
Thoip, thoip, thoip, thoip. Gah! It sounds so ridiculous right now I can't stop saying it!
"Hey Nancy, hold all my calls. I've got a two o'clock thoip coming up."
"Yes, our standard fee is one hundred thirty dollars an hour and we do have the ability to thoip."
"A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
As a service "patient confidentiality laws" may or may not be included or legally enforceable, are you going to read the EULA before you agree to it? The person on the other end may not be a licensed shrink, buyer beware.
It's ripe for abuse, if not from the person offering it then from the "man in the middle" which could be anyone from a Chinese hacker to the government, you're a fool to use Facebook, you are a TOTAL ass to use this and confide your deepest darkest.
No matter how far technology goes there is something to be said for face to face conversation, and in the area of psychiatric help it is critical.
Disclaimer: I am against most anti-depressant drug use, I feel cognitive therapy over the long term has better results without the nasty side effects, why do they use drugs then? Because it's cheaper, faster for the Doctor and longterm cognitive therapy is expensive and no one wants to cover it, plus for the patient it takes patience (no pun intended)
Now for the idiots among us, I do feel SSRI's and other drug therapy can be helpful, so before you prattle on about that read and comprehend.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I wish I had mod points for you.
Even if you somehow ran the entire DSM-5 past somebody and could not come up with SOMETHING i think that the diagnosis reads
"Does Not Have an Actionable Condition" since "normal" does not exist in the APA.
Slashdot Mini-Poll how many folks reading this are borderline X (and possibly borderline Y W Z V and T)?
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
www.crazy.com
As no one actually focuses on the good here so far... Have you ever been so depressed that you cannot leave your bed for *weeks* on end? I have. I would of loved it if my therapist would do a session via skype. Sure they can miss the subtle signs of depression and anxiety, but the *not leaving apartment* is a pretty big flag that they won't miss....
Then there is the pain of when you move, or your therapist moves, and you have to change your shrinks. After years of opening up to one person, it's so hard to open up to a different one that skype would be magnificent. At least it would aid the transition period.
These, and other examples are where VOIP services would shine: providing therapy where the patient otherwise would not receive *any*. Its so easy to fall though the cracks when you are depressed. And for those that say practitioners who suggest it should lose their liscense because it isn't "secure".... You do know a lot of sessions are taped, right? All of mine are, and I'm alright with that. Somewhere there is a file full of tapes, CD's, and a few video DVD's out there with my name right on it. And that is in many ways less secure than someone cracking into the stream and finding out what makes me tick. If it's the police, then it's not admissible in court. If it's someone stalking me/ doing extralegal research for some reason, then if they hadn't cracked into seeing my sessions, they would morally be just as likely to break into my therapists office and steal the file itself. Security is never absolute, after all.
We use something similar in our ER now. It allows patients to be observed via camera so the psych doc can visualize subtle actions. Most importantly, the patient doesn't have to wait a few hours (or days) for the doctor to be "in". It allows relatively quick assessment and disposition recommendation. The ER doc is advised of the recommendation and the patient is on their way home with a psych appointment, or on their way to the psych hospital under legal detention, or anything in between. Under the previous system, if a counselor was not immediately available we would have a psych patient in an inappropriate medical bed waiting to be transferred when the counselor/doc was able to come to our hospital and make a recommendation (next day).
This is a wonderful implementation of technology that is long overdue. I'm amazed at how little basic technology we use in daily health care.
Ah psychotherapy, where you pay someone to pretend to give a shit about you for a short period of time. It's like prostitution except more expensive and without the sex.