1. Jeanette Hsu, Ph.D. VAPTC Meeting August 22, 2011

2. What is social media? Social networking sites or “social media” Facebook Twitter MySpace LinkedIn YouTube Second Life Google groups Personal webpages Email Web logs or “blogs”

3. Issues in Trainees’ Use of Social Media Professional self-presentation Maintaining professional boundaries with patients/clients Confidentiality of patient identifying information Representation of VA, the health care system, and the training program

4. Guidelines Use of these sites on VA time should be limited only to VA-related business or to access VA-related information and postings Trainees should not represent themselves as VA interns or employees Consider how peers, faculty/supervisors, patients, and potential employers would view any public information about them Use the highest privacy settings to limit any personal information, pictures, communication to one’s online “friends” only

5. Guidelines Keep clear professional boundaries by never “friending” a former or current patient, or otherwise accept or solicit personal connections with them Do not discuss patient identifying information on any social networking site, email, blog, group, or other websites If a website, blog, or social networking page identifies the trainee as a psychology trainee or affiliated with VA, the training program has some responsibility for how the trainee and the program is portrayed Program may ask trainee to remove or modify unethical, illegal, inappropriate, or otherwise objectionable material

6. Example of Privacy Settings on Facebook Public search availability Can restrict the information the public can see if your name is searched on Facebook to only your profile picture and name Can keep other information not viewable on a public search Education, Work, Location, Interests All other settings should be set to “private” Friends can view all your other posts, pictures, and any other personal information you list Friends can view your other friends’ postings on your “wall” Choose your “friends” carefully!

7. Final Suggestions Search for your name regularly on search engines such as Google and Yahoo (and recommend your trainees do so) Request removal of personal information such as your home address and phone number from publicly available “people finders” such as spokeo.com, mylife.com, pipl.com, ussearch.com, and whitepages.com

8. Resources VA has a new social media policy which addresses the “secure use of web-based collaboration and social media tools to enhance communication, stakeholder outreach collaboration, and information exchange….” http://www.va.gov/vapubs/viewPublication.asp?Pub_I D=551&FType=2 http://www.va.gov/vapubs/viewPublication.asp?Pub_I D=551&FType=2 APA has a Social Media/Forum Policy to provide guidance about use of APA social networking forums http://www.apa.org/about/social-media-policy.aspx http://www.apa.org/about/social-media-policy.aspx

9. Questions and Discussion