ATAGF Social Media Policy
Information we share on social media and our website is intended for informational purposes only. Viewing our social media or website content does not constitute a professional relationship. You should consult an appropriate professional for specific advice tailored to your situation. If you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency, you should call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
You may also find these crisis numbers useful; they will connect you to a trained crisis counselor:
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
This document outlines our office policies related to use of Social Media. Please read it to understand how we conduct ourselves on the Internet as mental health professionals and how you can expect us to respond to various interactions that may occur between us on the Internet.
If you have any questions about any of the social media policies, we encourage you to bring them up when you meet with your professional or with our office staff. As new technology develops and the Internet changes, there will be times when this policy needs to be updated. If this is done, we will notify you of any policy changes and make sure you have access to a copy of the updated policy.
Friending/Following/Adding as a Contact
ATAGF maintains an online presence on several social media sites. We use the username grandforkstherapy or grandforkstherapy.training on these sites. We do not want you to see a pseudonym and think you are following someone else only to find out later that it is us.
ATAGF does not accept friend or contact requests from current or former clients on any social networking site. We believe adding clients as friends or contacts on these sites can compromise your confidentiality and our respective privacy. It may also blur the boundaries of the therapeutic relationship and make it feel like a friendship, a type of patronage, or simply encourage voyeurism. If you have questions about this, please bring them up when you meet with your professional so you can talk more about it.
In some rare circumstances, we have had people in our wider circle who previously followed us on social media ask to come in to work with us. If we agree that meeting together does not constitute a problematic conflict of interest, we will unfollow you during our work together to avoid some of the problems outlined above. We will do this to preserve the integrity of our working relationship. You are encouraged, but not required, to do the same.
In addition, viewing your online activities without your explicit consent and without a specific clinical purpose could have potential negative effects on your work with me. We might learn things about you that you have chosen not to discuss with us. It is your right to choose what to share in our work. If there are things from your online life that you do want to share with us, we encourage you to bring them into your professional sessions where we can view and explore them together during time with your professional. The best way to do this is to print things out and bring them to your session or show them to us on your devices. Please do not forward us emails or screen shots that involve other people as anything you send us does become part of your legal record.
ATAGF maintains a professional Facebook page to share interesting articles, community information, and updates with other users. You are welcome to view the page and read or share information posted there. We have no expectation that you as a client will want to follow or “like” the page.
The Review function for the Facebook page is turned off. This was done to maintain clients’ privacy, as individuals reading reviews may assume you are a client of one of our professionals and/or ATAGF. In addition, the American Psychological Association’s Ethics Code prohibits soliciting testimonials from clients. We feel allowing reviews on these pages comes too close to an implied request for a public endorsement of our practice.
Interacting
Please do not use SMS (mobile phone text messaging) or messaging on Social Networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn to contact ATAGF. These sites are not secure and messages may not be read in a timely fashion. Please do not use Wall postings, @replies, or other means of engaging with ATAGF in public online if we have an already established client/therapist relationship because engaging with us in this way could compromise your confidentiality. It may also create the possibility that these exchanges become a part of your legal medical record and will need to be documented and archived in your chart.
If you need to contact your professional between sessions, the best way to do so is by calling ATAGF (701-780-6821). The office staff will relay your message and any important information to your professional. ATAGF does not routinely use email as a means of communication with clients; it is never a good means of communication for therapeutic information or in a crisis situation, particularly because ATAGF and its professionals do not always check email frequently. If you and your professional agree to use email for communication, our professionals prefer that email is only used for administrative issues such as changing appointment times. See the email section below for more information regarding email interactions.
Use of Search Engines
It is NOT a regular part of our practice to search for clients on Google or other search engines. It is also NOT a regular part of our practice to search for clients on social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). Extremely rare exceptions may be made during times of crisis. If your professional has reason to suspect that you are in danger and you have not been in touch with your professional via your usual means (coming to appointments, phone, or email) there might be instances in which using a search engine to check on your recent status updates becomes necessary as part of ensuring your welfare. These are unusual situations, and if your professional ever resorts to such means, they will document it in your chart and discuss it with you when you next meet with them.
Again, we do not do this because we see it as a potential breach of your privacy and the trust between us. We believe viewing your online activities and postings can alter your professional’s impressions of you and change the relationship you are mutually developing in your meetings, as described above. It can also create confusion in regard to whether your professional is looking at your online activity as part of your work together (for assessment or diagnostic purposes) or to satisfy their personal curiosity.
If we do have online activity that you want your professional to know about, please talk to them about it during you work together when you are meeting for a session.
Discovering/Viewing Our Online Activity
In the future, we may have published a blog on our website, publish writings, and create online courses. We have a Twitter account, a Facebook account, an Instagram account, and a LinkedIn account. We have no expectation that clients will want to follow our writings or social media postings. However, if you use an easily recognizable name online, and we happen to notice you’ve followed us, we may briefly discuss it and its potential impact on our working relationship.
You may also run across our professionals’ information in other settings. You may see online ads we post, or you may discover you have friends or contacts in common with your professional on social media. You may discover my podcasts or videos. Or you may find that we have online reviews of our professional practice.
Whether you find this information accidentally or intentionally, what is important to us is that you feel safe and comfortable bringing it up if it has an impact on you and your feelings about our work together. We want to make it clear that it is very normal for people to be curious about their mental health professional, and some people feel shame or embarrassment about bringing these things up. But we hope to create a relationship in which you are welcomed to bring up anything you learn about us outside of our sessions that has an impact on your comfort in working together.
Writings About Professional Work
Our professionals may occasionally publish writings that reference their professional work. When they do so, they use composite cases and will not be writing about their work with you. However, if the issues about which they are writing seem like they may hit “close to home” for anyone in our practice, our professionals’ approach is to tell you they are writing about something that may be linked to topics or issues we have addressed. They will allow you to read a draft of any material they want to publish and get your consent and let you edit/remove/change details so you are comfortable with what gets published. To date, our professionals have not needed to do this in well over a decade of practice because they stick to common themes and composite cases.
Business Review Sites
You may find ATAGF on sites such as Yelp, Healthgrades, Yahoo Local, Bing, or other places which list businesses. Some of these sites include forums in which users rate their professionals and add reviews. Many of these sites comb search engines for business listings and automatically add listings regardless of whether the business has added itself to the site. If you should find ATAGF’s listing on any of these sites, please know that our listing is NOT a request for a testimonial, rating, or endorsement from you as a client.
The American Psychological Association’s Ethics Code states under Principle 5.05 that it is unethical for psychologists to solicit testimonials: “Psychologists do not solicit testimonials from current therapy clients/patients or other persons who because of their particular circumstances are vulnerable to undue influence.”
Of course, you have a right to express yourself on any site you wish. But due to confidentiality, ATAGF or your professional cannot respond to any review on any of these sites whether it is positive or negative. You should also be aware that if you are using these sites to communicate indirectly with ATAGF or your professional about your feelings about our work, there is a good possibility that we may never see it.
If you are working with us, we hope you will bring your feelings and reactions to our work directly into the therapy process our to the attention of our administrative staff. This can be an important part of therapy, even if you decide we are not a good fit with your professional or ATAGF. None of this is meant to keep you from sharing that you are in therapy with one of our professionals wherever and with whomever you like. Confidentiality means that we cannot tell people that you are a client of ATAGF, and our Ethics Code prohibits us from requesting testimonials. But you are more than welcome to tell anyone you wish that you work with a professional at ATAGF or how you feel about the treatment received, in any forum of your choosing.
If you do choose to write something on a business review site, we hope you will keep in mind that you may be sharing personally revealing information in a public forum. We encourage you to create a pseudonym that is not linked to your regular email address or friend networks for your own privacy and protection.
If you feel one of our professionals did something harmful or unethical and you do not feel comfortable discussing it with your professional or ATAGF administration, you can always contact the North Dakota State Board of Psychologist Examiners (for licensed psychologists), the North Dakota Board of Social Work Examiners (for social workers), or the North Dakota Board of Counselor Examiners. Some of our psychologists (Minnesota Board of Psychology) and social workers (Minnesota Board of Social Work) are also licensed in Minnesota. These entities oversee licensing of psychologists, social workers, and counselors, respectively, in North Dakota and Minnesota (if applicable), and they will review the services your clinician provided. Each link contains contact information for the respective board overseeing the professional discipline in that jurisdiction.
Location-Based Services (LBS)
If you used location-based services on your mobile phone, you may wish to be aware of the privacy issues related to using these services. We do not place my ATAGF as a check-in location on various sites such as Foursquare, Places, etc. However, if you have GPS tracking enabled on your device, it is possible that others may surmise that you are a client due to regular check-ins at our office. Please be aware of this risk if you are intentionally “checking in,” from our office or if you have a passive LBS app enabled on your phone. Also, if you and family members or partners use Find My Phone to track your whereabouts, and they do not know you are working with us, another potential risk of them seeing your location is that they may discover that we work together.
For telehealth sessions, our office staff or your professional sends secure session links via email (which is explained in the telehealth and email informed consent documents). We may also send you handouts. You should be aware exchanged emails become a part of your legal record, and we keep a copy in your chart. Please do not email us content related to your professional session and only use it for administrative purposes (scheduling). If you choose to email us content related to your professional session, note that email is not completely secure or confidential. All emails are retained in the logs of your and our Internet service providers. Although it is unlikely that someone will be looking at these logs, they are, in theory, available to be read by system administrator(s) of the Internet service providers. We typically reply to emails within one to two days, although we prefer to not communicate with clients via email.
We occasionally send training, continuing education, and writing updates via an email list that individuals may opt-in to receive (via our Continuing Education & Training department). We do not personally add anyone to this list. We have no expectation that you as a client will want to subscribe to this list. If you elect to subscribe to this list, information you provide when signing up (e.g., email address) will be shared with Mailchimp, which is the program we use to manage this list.
We rarely use email to communicate with clients. Therefore, if you subscribe to our email list, please do not use this (i.e., email) as a way to communicate with us. Under specific circumstances that will discuss with you directly, your professional may elect to communicate with you by email. Please note that this is a rare occurrence and done so for specific purposes. If you discuss having email contact with your professional, you will be asked to sign an informed consent to email so you are aware of the risks of using this method of communication. You are not obligated to ever communicate with your professional or ATAGF.
Texting
We do not text with clients as a routine method of communication. ATAGF sends text message reminders for appointments, and you may opt out of these reminders by submitting your request in writing. Our business phone is a landline, and any texts sent to this phone will not be received. It is best to call (701) 780-6821 if you need to relay any information.
Record-Keeping and Data Storage
ATAGF uses PsychAdvantage, a HIPAA-secure cloud-based digital health system to schedule appointments, track your payments and diagnosis, and store your records. We provide telehealth through Zoom for Healthcare, which is also HIPAA-secure (details discussed in Telehealth Informed Consent). We encrypt all our computers so in the event of theft or loss, the entire hard drive is encrypted and cannot be accessed without the encryption key. This also means HIPAA breach notification does not apply if any device is stolen. We do not store any patient information on my personal cell phone or tablet, nor do we access any patient records using these devices.
Conclusion
Thank you for taking the time to review our Social Media Policy. If you have questions or concerns about any of these policies, procedures. or regarding our potential interactions on the Internet, please bring them to the attention of your professional or other ATAGF staff so they can be discussed.
Permissions
Information in this form may only be used by those who have purchased it. Do not copy, sell, distribute, or post without the express permission of Keely Kolmes, Psy.D. If you are someone wanting to use this form, go to https://drkkolmes.com to purchase a copy of this form.
The effective date of this policy is September 2, 2019. It was updated on April 23, 2020 and March 21, 2021.