Social Media and Psychiatry: Natural Friends?
Image courtesy of Lee’s Design
Social media such as social networks, blogs,
microblogs, and wikis have been around for some
time now. Perhaps you have been making the
most of social media to connect with ideas,
information and people involved in the mental
health field since Facebook launched in 2004, or
maybe you are more like I was and don’t really
know what it has to offer. Either way social
media seems to be here to stay. Most NHS trusts
now use a social media platform, it is no longer
seen as an optional extra, and indeed it would
now say more about an organisation if it didn’t
use one. What about health professionals? Do
you tweet, or have a health related mobile phone
app, would you recommend a mobile phone app
to patients? I am new to twitter and I have to
admit that I dismissed it as a platform to follow
celebrities and tell everyone how much you loved
or hated Justin Bieber depending on your
particular predilection- something I wasn’t
particularly drawn to. However it makes sense
that social media sites like Twitter are of
From Malcolm Sinclair @RMNBristol
I tweet personally on @RMNBristol and also am the
main tweeter in a formal work account of @BristolMH
I started this less than a year ago after moving into a
new role in Bristol in which the service needed to rebuild
its connections and reputation across wider city
communities. Most tweets relate to Bristol issues,
community or health, or wider mental health news and
views. There is so much on twitter to retweet about
mental health and local developments, as well as
sometimes announcing actions and improvements in
local provision. On my personal account I include non
work issues at times. I have gained 3500 followers on
that account in about 10 months, with most being local or
having similar health, societal or artistic interests in the
UK and beyond. I also link twitter to my own, still
developing, blog - Psychoculture.com
Malcolm Sinclair RMN
Managing Director
Mental Health Bristol
Helen Hutchings‫@‏‬teaandtalking
Mental Health Nurse with lived experience.
Founder of Tea & Talk interests are recovery,
stigma, & perinatal mental health. Work at
@DorsetHealth. Boat rocker. Dorset.
Most recent tweet (a retweet) accessed on 6th
May 2014:
mental health music‫@‏‬Markstorey65
@teaandtalking : : #iwilllisten http://youtu.be/9ImFppGezE #TimetoTalk make #mentalhealth what
we are talking about
Helen replied to my tweet saying: Hi I tweet about
MH to promote the positive aspects of staff with
lived experience, to share my experience of
mental health services, to network, reduce stigma
and discrimination and raise mental health
awareness Helen 
particular interest to those involved in mental
health as social media is about connecting with
people and feeling connected is such a crucial
factor in mental wellbeing.
Twitters’ Wikipedia web page [1] will tell you that
in 2013 Twitter was one of the ten most-visited
websites, so what is all the fuss about? I have to
admit that, since joining, I have found it a rich
source of education and mental health resource
and I’ve been excited by the idea of connecting
and exchanging ideas with a world-wide mental
health community; it is a great work tool. In fact
Wikipedia will also tell you that one of its
founders, Evan Williams, observed that Twitter
has changed from its origins and he now
considers it more of an information network than
a social network. I was keen to see what other
Editorial Spring eNewsletter 2014, Ane Gillett
psychiatrists and colleagues in the South West make of
it, Helen Hutchings, Malcolm Sinclair and Karl Scheeres
have all been kind enough to share with us what they
think.
Karl Scheeres@karlscheeres
Mark Brown has put a lot of thought into the role of
Cycling psychiatrist. Clinical teaching fellow in
psychiatry with @AWPNHS and @BristolUni
social media in health and care. He tweets, writes and
Southwest psychiatric trainees committee
speaks at conferences on the topic and his thoughts
(PTC) representative.
come from his own experience of mental illness. He is
Most recent tweet (a retweet) accessed 6th
Development Director of social enterprise; Social Spider
May 2014:
CIC [3], where he specialises on the intersection
between social innovation and mental health. He is also
editor of “One in Four” magazine [4], a mental health
The Mental Elf@Mental_Elf · May
magazine written by people with mental health
3
Most popular blog this week?
difficulties, bringing some of the riches found in blogs,
@PsychiatrySHO & @Keith_Laws on the
or the ‘madosphere’, as he calls it, to a non-internet
adverse effects of psychotherapy
audience. Most recently, Mark, who tweets as
http://thementalelf.net/?p=9070
@markoneinfour, spoke on the topic at this year’s NHS
Karl got in touch and said “In my opinion
England hosted Health and Care Innovation Expo [5] he
social media can have definite benefits for
mental healthcare, for me this has largely
also blogged about it, naturally [6,7]. He argues that
been about me keeping abreast of the latest
social media can help to root the NHS in the fabric of
developments in psychiatry and medical
communities. He equates tweeting with health
education. I do this mainly through Twitter; for
example I follow the 'Mental Elf' - a site set up
professionals to getting to know your local community
to critically appraise the latest evidence in
doctor in the village café; “social media is the new local
mental health (@Mental_Elf on Twitter).
pub or café, it’s the place where people check in to hear
These are very brief messages with links to a
blog with almost daily digests and analysis of
the latest news, catch up with friends, debate….social
important papers in psychiatry [2]. Twitter
media is where people are.” He calls health
allows you to network with others and is nonhierarchical, with no barriers; if you want to
professionals who use social media to talk about their
ask the next college president a question it's
specialist area ‘public professionals’: “They help the
very straightforward; simply write a message
public to understand the process, the practice and the
to @WesselyS and he's likely to reply. It's
interesting to note that lots of senior
limitations of healthcare… they also learn from the
academics and politically active doctors use
blogs, tweets, videos and discussions that they find
social media frequently.
themselves in and carry this understanding into their
I think the concerns about the use of social
work….You don’t need to be a social media expert to do
media and mental health care are mostly
social media. You just need to know your subject and
unwarranted. Although there is lots of debate
about the perils of social media, looking at the
just need to be really, really passionate about
facts only a single doctor was referred to the
discussing it.” He also reminds us that “It’s easy to
GMC between 2009-2013 because of a
comment made on Twitter (there were 8,781
forget just how much taxpayer funded knowledge and
complaints in total in 2011 alone). Like any
wisdom is currently sitting within the staff of the NHS.
new medium, there are of course potential
It’s awesome but it also ends up hidden from the people
hazards, but most doctors are savvy enough
to be aware of the public nature of what is
who paid for it.” He points out that the growth of mobile
posted.”
technology like smartphones and tablet PCs has had an
important impact too; “social media feels less like a set
of websites that we visit and more like a layer of
communication, community and interaction that sits over our everyday lives.” He uses the term
‘Relationship value’ and says it is “…key to understanding the potential and actual benefits of
social media. People who are engaged with social media are not passive recipients of information.
They are people who are actively seeking relationships with those that they follow, be they
individuals, institutions or organisations… people increasingly expect that organisations will speak
back to them and listen to them. Many currently active on public social networking sites like
Twitter are there precisely because Twitter throws up unexpected contacts and unexpected
information.”
South west psychologist, Dr Phil Topham, visiting research fellow at the University of Western
England and leader of the team that developed SAM, the "self-help for anxiety management" app,
is also interested in the possible role of ‘relationship value’, in mobile technology [8]. He found
emerging evidence pointing to the emotional connection that people have to their smartphones
which could be important for the popularity of a self-help mobile app and likewise a social network
app. Since launching the app they have found that the Social Cloud, a community forum where
Editorial Spring eNewsletter 2014, Ane Gillett
users can support each other anonymously any time of the day or night has been a particularly
popular aspect [9].
In its Social Media Strategy and Guidelines document [10] the College describes why it uses social
media, saying “The College uses social media as a communications tool. Through our various
accounts and blogs we aim to engage with the membership, medical students, journalists,
patients and carers, and anyone with an interest in mental health or our work. We can use social
media to have a dialogue with people, to share our views, promote our work and drive traffic to
our website. The document rightly warns readers about a common problem with social media
“Don’t forget - maintaining an effective social media presence is hard work and can be time
consuming. Successful Facebook and Twitter pages need to be updated several times a day with a
regular stream of fresh and original content. Stale or stagnating pages reflect badly on an
organisation.” It also helpfully points doctors in the direction of GMC guidelines to assist in
maintaining professionalism when using social media [11].
Has this feature encouraged you to explore social media more? The question is; what are you
missing? Dr Emma Stanton was asked this in a recent e-Interview for The Psychiatric Bulletin
[12]: What are non-tweeting psychiatrists missing? She said “You know how at conferences and
presentations the most interesting bit is often during a ‘Q and A’ session at the end? Well, I think
Twitter is a bit like that. Admittedly, there is a substantial amount of superfluous nonsense on
Twitter but I think it is equally possible to tune in to some fascinating debates. If you are
intrigued, I am @doctorpreneur.”
References:
1. Twitter. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter (accessed 2 May, 2014).
2. Tomlin A. The Mental Elf. Keeping you up to date with reliable mental health research,
policy & guidance. Weblog http://www.thementalelf.net/ (accessed 17 March, 2014).
3. Brown M. Social Spider CIC: Helping People Make Change Happen.
http://socialspider.com/ (accessed 24 April, 2014).
4. Brown M. ONEinFOUR: Lifestyle, health, mental wellbeing. http://www.oneinfourmag.org/
(accessed 24 April 2014).
5. Health and Care Innovation Expo 2014. http://www.healthcareinnovationexpo.com/
(accessed 24 April 2014).
6. Brown M. Social media and public professionals #expo14NHS. Weblog
http://shirleyayres.wordpress.com/2014/03/04/guest-post-markoneinfour-social-mediaand-public-professionals-expo14nhs/ (accessed 23 March)
7. Brown M. Social media and social conversations. Weblog
http://shirleyayres.wordpress.com/2014/04/16/guest-post-markoneinfour-social-mediaand-social-conversations/ (accessed April 20 2014).
8. Topham P. Making people appy.
http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/16644/10/making%20people%20appy.pdf (accessed March 30
2014).
9. University of the West of England. News release: UWE Bristol Self-help app for anxiety goes
global. http://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/uwenews/news.aspx?id=2764 (accessed April 24 2014).
10. RCPSYCH Social Media Group. RCPsych Social Media Strategy and Guidelines. Royal College
of Psychiatrists. August 2013.
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/PDF/Social%20Media%20Policy%20%20Members%20130918.pdf (accessed February 17 2014).
11. GMC. Doctors’ Use of Social Media (2013). http://www.gmcuk.org/guidance/ethical_guidance/21186.asp (accessed February 17 2014)
12. Stanton E. Interviewed by Dosani S. e-Interview. The Psychiatrist Online 2013
http://pb.rcpsych.org/content/37/4/ibc.full (accessed May 2 2014).
Editorial Spring eNewsletter 2014, Ane Gillett