Posted by psych chat on November 1, 2009, at 12:33:40
The only solution is to allow people to edit/delete their own posts. If they find links to their comments Twittered, they can simply go back to the original thread and delete them.
This is the only way to ensure privacy and confidentiality, and one aspact of a respectable way for a medical doctor to manage a mental health forum, imo. While it may have not been an issue in the past-when this forum was initially created-it sure is now.
Just looking at the traffic statistics of this site, and the relatively few posts, one can only imagine the various intent (both good and bad) of those searching and collecting information from this site.
http://www.psych.org/Departments/EDU/residentmit/ethicsprimer.aspx
"For psychiatric patients, because of the widespread stigma and many cultural contexts of mental versus physical illness, confidentiality is even more important than in most areas of medicine (American Psychiatric Association Committee on Confidentiality 1987).
The Principles go on to note that this is an era of growing concern about the civil rights of patients and the possible adverse effects of computerization, duplication equipment, and data banks (Section 4, Annotation 1). These advances in technology may provide relatively easy access to data, but because of the sensitive and private nature of the information with which the psychiatrist deals, he/she must be circumspect in the information that he/she chooses to disclose to others about a patient. The welfare of the patient must be a continuing [dominant] consideration (Principles, Section 4)."
Above ethics code concerns patient/doctor relationships and research, but still-it the philosophy of the American Psychiatric Association.
poster:psych chat
thread:923841
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20090813/msgs/923841.html