Investor Presentaiton
Information and Technology -
Dilemma
The safety plan for Wade's adolescent client dictated that she call Wade, a private
practitioner in La Plata, MD, whenever she felt like cutting herself. But instead of
calling, the client kept texting Wade. When Wade responded by calling the client back
to try to de-escalate the situation, the girl would hang up on Wade, insisting she didn't
want to talk. The client would then explain the whole situation via text. “I clearly had
an ethical obligation to communicate with her, [but] I needed to do it in a way that she
was going to be receptive to," says Wade, a member of the American Counseling
Association who also works in a group counseling practice and is working toward her
doctorate. "We had a discussion about the lack of confidentiality regarding [texting]
and my uneasiness about it, but the fact of the matter was, I had to do what was in the
best interest of my client. And in that situation, it was to text and calm her down that
way."
Counseling Today (Oct 2011) "Finding Technology's Role in the Counseling Relationship."View entire presentation