Welcome to the Second Life Forums Archive

These forums are CLOSED. Please visit the new forums HERE

Psychiatric Care in Second Life
Lisse Livingston
Mentor/Instructor/Greeter
Join date: 16 May 2004
Posts: 1,130
12-06-2005 17:26
As far as the phobia thing goes, I think being able to fly (and jump off 700m high platforms without flying, yet survive the fall) did a lot for my fear of heights.

Then I went and jumped off a cliff in World of Warcraft and died.

There goes all that Second Life theraputic improvement...
_____________________
Land Developer, Builder and Real Estate Agent
Come to my events!
Sundays at 10:00 am: Texturing Contest
Tuesdays at 5:00 pm: Land 101 and at 7:00 pm: Trivia
Thursdays at 7:00 pm: Land 101
Fridays at 7:00 pm: Primtionary
(Other events occasionally scheduled)
Read my LiveJournal!
Visit my Livingston Properties web site for your Real Estate and Building needs!
Cristiano Midnight
Evil Snapshot Baron
Join date: 17 May 2003
Posts: 8,616
12-06-2005 19:26
From: Tenzin Tuque
Really, keep it peer-to-peer, non-professional. As to earlier posts, I'm not sure why SL needs to be primary locus for therapy or counseling, since confidentiality is impossible to guarantee, identities and credentials hard to confirm, etc.



I agree with this. SL is a great environment for non-professional group support. It can combine the therapeutic power of being in a group of people with a shared experience, and the anonymity that makes it much easier to share something so personal with complete strangers. Professional care is something else altogether. The lack of any true kind of credential verificaiton, combined with the potential for abuse just makes it a bad environment for such a thing. I think the potential for harm does outweigh the benefits of psychiatric care being given in an online world, at least without some real world contact with the patient.
_____________________
Cristiano


ANOmations - huge selection of high quality, low priced animations all $100L or less.

~SLUniverse.com~ SL's oldest and largest community site, featuring Snapzilla image sharing, forums, and much more.
ThreeTimes Thirty
Tent Dweller
Join date: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 1
12-06-2005 20:07
I had 90 minutes to spare and...
Jeffrey Gomez
Cubed™
Join date: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 3,522
12-06-2005 20:13
From: ThreeTimes Thirty
I had 90 minutes to spare and...

Hahahahaha.... thanks. That made my day. :D
_____________________
---
StoneSelf Karuna
His Grace
Join date: 13 Jun 2004
Posts: 1,955
12-06-2005 20:32
From: Jessica Robertson
I wouldn't say 'Milder Issues'

Psychiatrists are the actual guys that push psychiatric drugs, work on the psych wards at hospitals, work in mental insitutions, that sort of thing. They deal with Severe Schizophrenia, Unregulated Multiple Personality Disorder, Violent Psychotic Episodes, the really, really severe cases that require hospital time, supervision, and prescription medication.

Counseling and Therapists deal with mental issues that are not so... life threatening? severe? I wouldn't go so far as to say, 'milder' though.

psychiatrists are mds and capable of prescribing medication.

psychologists cannot prescribe medication as they are not mds.
StoneSelf Karuna
His Grace
Join date: 13 Jun 2004
Posts: 1,955
12-06-2005 20:34
From: Isablan Neva
it is also a fairly well known fact that creativity and mental disturbances tend to go hand in hand.

this is not the case.
StoneSelf Karuna
His Grace
Join date: 13 Jun 2004
Posts: 1,955
12-06-2005 20:38
From: Blueman Steele
Given that e-mail sessions and IM's with therapist have been considered by scientific studies to be "as good as the real thing" I thing therapy in SL is overdue and yes should be practiced by licenced people only.
i've seen these studies. it appears that it works for some conditions (e.g. insomnia, depression, certain phobias) , but not others (e.g narcissism, schizoprenia). my clinical psychology professor thinks more studies need to be done.
StoneSelf Karuna
His Grace
Join date: 13 Jun 2004
Posts: 1,955
12-06-2005 20:40
From: Aimee Weber
2. As an immersive 3D environment that could be used hand-in-hand with RL therapy.
vr exposure to fear stimulus seems to work pretty well, but the evidence so far is that <i>in vivo</i> exposure in conjunction with vr therapy works better.
StoneSelf Karuna
His Grace
Join date: 13 Jun 2004
Posts: 1,955
12-06-2005 20:42
From: Aimee Weber
1. Counseling for milder issues, and perhaps preliminary counseling before real psychiatric care is sought.
as a prescreening system and referral to a in person therapist, sl might work.

sl might also work in lieu of email/im where those avenues of communication are sufficient. but those usually start with in person sessions.
StoneSelf Karuna
His Grace
Join date: 13 Jun 2004
Posts: 1,955
12-06-2005 20:49
From: Lucifer Baphomet
As a mental health proffessional in RL, i think this is a bad idea.
We rely on several ques to work with people... verbal, total, body language in RL, all missing in SL

So, in my proffessional opinion only quacks are going to offer psychiatric care in SL.

i'm going to paraphrase this:

certain kinds of therapy require very good lines of communication, without the non-verbal components of conversation, the lines of communication are significantly less.

a lot of information is transmitted in through paralinguistics cues - tone, body language, prosody, non-linguistic sounds, etc.
StoneSelf Karuna
His Grace
Join date: 13 Jun 2004
Posts: 1,955
12-06-2005 21:00
From: Aimee Weber
A. an alternative to those who need psychiatric care who will never ever bring themselves into RL therapy.
i think as an alternative, it wouldn't work, but as an adjunct it could work. but given how sl chat works, email and im might be better.
StoneSelf Karuna
His Grace
Join date: 13 Jun 2004
Posts: 1,955
12-06-2005 21:02
From: Aimee Weber
C. Emergency care, much like suicide hotlines.
i think it would be better to have the sl hotline (if it came into existence) to refer people to a telephone hotline. but if a phone call is out... maybe sl is better than nothing.
1 2 3 4