Mental Health and Social Media with Sean Erreger
We met Sean Erreger when he attended our presentation on EHR technology for
The National Council for Behavioral Health. He was impressed with our presentation and gladly shared portions of it out into the Twitterverse. Sean was also a presenter at the conference about the proper use of social media in the field of mental health. It can save lives and let’s face it: Social Media is not going anywhere. We might as well use it for good! Join Sean as we interview each other about what we do, why we do it, and why we are both so passionate about Behavioral Health.
Every Sunday night at 10pm EST a diverse community gathers on Twitter to share the latest information on Suicide Prevention. Using the hashtag #SPSM (Suicide Prevention on Social Media) individuals share insights that can assist with suicide prevention. For more information go to SPSMchat.com.
Questions for Sean:
Sean, you are an avid blogger and all over social media. As a social worker what are thoughts on the use of social media?
I have a lot of thoughts about this but there was a great panel at American Association of Suicidology that I just blogged about and shared a lot of my thoughts:
http://wp.me/p4sjb2-Nr
Why did you start using social media?
What is the “value add” to being a mental health practitioner on social media?
What about HIPPA?
Why as a mental health professional on social media is it important for you to have a “social media policy”?
Questions for Kristin:
Care management entities are asked to use more EHR technologies. What are some of the key questions we want to ask when shopping around?
The presentation from the conference has really hit home with vendors and agencies. I think people from both sides were starving for truth and a big reality check. We certainly don’t have all of the answers but we have a great team of investigators and wonderful colleagues that are the thought leaders in behavioral health. We know where to go to get answers, we know how to deliver those answers, and we care about how our answers shape this sector of healthcare where all of us devote our personal and professional lives.
What should we know before reaching out to a EHR Vendor?
What are good direct questions to ask prospective EHR companies when shopping around?
There are things we can ask a vendor that many agencies won’t and we don’t have the layer of mistrust that many agencies have, and rightly so, with EHR vendors. There are wonderful, ethical vendors on the market that unfortunately get drowned out by some vendors that have no business housing mental health records. Use our checklist and reach out to us for help.
In your NatCon Presentation you mentioned some Google searches you might want to do.. what are some of those?
Type the name of any vendor into Google with the word lawsuit after it. Go to LinkedIn and verify their employee’s work history and credentials. If their HIPAA compliance officer has a thin resume with nothing relevant in the field of behavioral health or they don’t have a team of mental health clinicians on staff – that’s an example of a company with zero credentials.
During implementation, if things are not working out as expected what can you do?
Call or email us and we’ll work with your organization and the vendor to get things on track or we’ll help you find a vendor that is better suited to your needs. It isn’t always the vendors fault either. Expectation management is a vendor and agency responsibility. A lot of what we do especially with our clinical director, Dr. DuFour, and with great partners like MTM Services is lay the foundation for an agency and vendors for successful EHR implementations.
Sean Erreger is a mental health case manager for youth. He has over ten years of direct practice experience in a variety of settings including inpatient, crisis intervention, school social work, and foster care. He blogs and utilizes social media to share resources for social work, mental health, and suicide prevention. He also offers training around issues regarding self care, the therapeutic alliance, and helping practitioners with social media.
Abuse, abuse recovery, anxiety, authentic life, behavioral health, community, coping skills, counseling, current events, de-stigmatizing mental health, depression, destigmatize mental health, destigmatizing mental health, EHR, EHRs, emotional abuse, empath, healing, healing life, healing lifestyle, Healthcare Technology, Kristin Sunanta Walker, life skills, mental health, mental health awareness, mental health issues, mental illness, narcissistic abuse, narcissistic abuse recovery, overall health, Psychiatry, psychology, PTSD, self-care, social media, social media professionals, Social Networking, social work, social workers, suicide, suicide prevention, trauma, Trauma recovery
