Psychiatric Care in Second Life

Ok let's get this straight. When you were told your purchase of first land was bad, you started a thread soliciting everyone's opinion on the matter (and then still didn't like the consensus). That was perfectly valid because it was Cocoanut Koala doing it.

Aimee, myself and others have been repeatedly told that we are "public figures" and are justly criticized without limit because of that. However, according to you, it is not valid for Aimee to then start a thread asking what makes someone a public figure. Why? She's not allowed to ask that question? She didn't name or make direct reference to anyone. If you are aware of the backstory behind why she is asking, it doesn't make her question any kind of game or attack. Or was your question about first land a game/attack on those criticizing you?

Again, reading the original post in this thread, there is not a single reference to anyone except Jake (who by and large seems fairly sane). I dare say most people in SL at some point have dealt with someone who is mentally unhinged or very clearly in need of help. They may themselves be in need of help and using SL as some kind of emotional escape. The topic is very interesting and thought provoking. If you want to turn it into an attack on your friend, that is your business. However, you can't dictate someone else's motives, and the rest of us are just going to ignore it and talk about the topic at hand, as not everything is about your friend (who definitely would benefit from some therapy).

Oh apparently, it is.

not too convoluted, i understood what you said and you make good points Yep, i think ultimately its about giving back control to person, and i agree, taking money in return does change a relationship.

After watching all my gold stars go away yesterday, I could use some pyschiatric help AND psychic help to figure out if it was a legitmate slam dunk on my builds or if I was a vicitim of "reply rage."

Now if we could just get that privacy thing worked out...

I don't think anyone has yet mentioned Support For Healing Island. Zafu Diamond runs a successful depression support group in SL already. That's one of SL's bright lights, IMHO.

Peer groups like have good potential in SL, since the social interface favours peer-to-peer communication. Counselling and "professional" services in SL would be tricky at best, since not all RL therapsists and psychs practice with mind to fulll benefit of client. So you might get Lucy from Peanuts hanging up her "Psychiatric Help 5 cents" sign in-world -- so buyer beware!

People ask if we at the Milarepa Land Trust give teachings within our Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Given that we're keen dharma students in RL, not ordained lamas or gehses, we defer to giving advice and meditation instruction that directly relfects our humble abilities in RL. So like Support For Healing, we try to facilitiate peer-to-peer community and friendly advice. And avoid pontificating and never, ever pose as an expert or professional. (Plus RL lamas are too busy with RL to be playing computer games...)

That, I think, is a good ethical model for any would-be in-world therapists or other do-gooders. Even ones with professional accreditation, since SL is an experiment and the usual therapeudic context doesn't exist here.

I skipped over some posts, so I apologize if I repeat.

Psychiatrists are medical doctors, with all of the training needed to be a medical doctor, who then specialize in mental illness and behavorial disorders. Psychiatrists can prescribe medication.

Psychologists study the human mind, and clinical psychologists are the ones who provide mental health care such as therepy. The education needed to counsel as a therapist varies from state to state, but in Texas, it requires a Masters degree in psychology. Psychologists cannot prescribe medication.

I have degrees in social science and psychology. While I am not able to counsel those in need and would never choose to do so in SL, I think there is a viable and even needed place for counseling in Second Life, for less serious cases of depression, agoraphobia, rape counseling, addiction counseling, etc.

Also, I currently live 16 miles from the nearest town and am currently without transportation. If I needed counseling (and some may say that I do), I would love to be able to find it in SL.

Edited to add: I do think that this would have to be an area that LL would assist in though. As another poster said, we might get Lucy setting up her little stand and charging 10 cents per session. Linden Lab could check credentails, and only those with the appropriate ones would be given LL's stamp of approval.

I agree Cris. Why it is tolerated?, I dunno. Everything is an affront even when not specifically aimed at this person, yet it is permissible to speak for everyone elses motivations. It sickening.

These forums have turned into a day-care for nut cases.

I actually saw this a bit differently, maybe it's because of the last 6 months or so spent away from SL. But, just like over the phone therapy, a Real Life therapist could, instead of using the phone as the medium for communication with a client, could use SL. So you have a therapist / counselor who is qualified in real life, advertising his or her service over their website with the option of using Second Life as a communication medium instead of the telephone. Payment for services would not be done in Linden Dollars, it would be done outside of LL entirely. The real life information to the therapist is always available, as is the telephone should that become the clients preferred method of communication.

Should existing SL'ers decide to use his or her services, they would register, make an appointment, and arrange payment over that therapists website.

I wasn't really thinking of a virtual lemonade stand / clothing stop / therapy corner selling advice out of a Dr. Phil book for Lindens.

Jessica

I joined support for healing recently and have found everyone there kind and supportive. Like someone else, I too have anxiety and inablity to leave my house for days. SFH also has their own website with an active message board.
They are not trained experts but I am not sure one has to be to be supportive or caring. All you need is an open heart and mind.
In the real world I was a Social Worker till I could not see well any longer, hence my anxiety began. I am very careful in sl not to be running around diagnosing or labeling anyone because I have strong feelings about people been put in boxes with labels on them and thats what they are. We all have issues, with degrees of severity.
As far as Psychiatrists, they are MDS who specialized in Mental Disorders but like other doctors there are good ones and maybe not so good ones. Same with Psychologists and Social Workers, and Mental health workers. Like anything else I always encouraged people to shop for their mental health practictoner.
I encourage people who in sl wish to utilize it as a tool in their wellness but I also worry about people who will use it for other means. I do not think solely relying on sl for your Mental Health needs is maybe such a good thing and I am not sure how I personally would deal with someone who is saying they might kill themselves given the fact I have an active liscense in my state and as such have a duty to report this if I ascertain they really intent to. There is a suicide hotline in every state and I worry about doing that kind of therapy on the internet.

Wouldn't a Yahoo account be a better, more technologically sophisticated method of conducting online counseling?

The patient can make a website as a form of art therapy.

Appointment scheduling can be done on the Yahoo calendar.

Video chatting and voice chatting is available.

Email comes with the package also, and the price is free.

If the therapeutic regimen calls for some 3D modeling just put some Legos in front of the webcam.

As a communications system Yahoo has it all over Second Life, and so do many other competitors.

I'll start by saying aboslutely none of my comments in the public figure thread were some hidden discussion about Prokofy or anyone else. Aimee asked a question, I have some small expertise in relation to that question, so I try to be helpful. The can besaid about my comments here, as to a question at which I have only an incidental understanding. Frankly these sorts of topis, to me are exactly the kinds of things we are supposed to be talking about in the forums. And they are not directly bashing anyone.

One thing I will say about the forums is that noone here is shy about thier opinions, and we have never in the past needed to hide our bashing of a particular individual with imputiny, why start now? If these threads were really about bashing someone, beleive me they would be bashed.

I can see, and take to heart, the notion that psychotherapy on the whole requires physical interaction, but that does not render a medium like SL valuless. I think if ou look at SL's potential as a tool to aid a therapist it must have at least as many possibilites as yahoo, though in practice SL is perhaps not so refined at the moment.

I think beyond education and training applications, perhaps it is a tool where you can have an interactive conversation and still have a small shield of anonymity. I mean surely someone has begun to consider if a 3-d enviroment has advantages over a 2-d envirmonment in fostering chat?

Yes but prims in SL are all based on their CENTER! Scientologists all agree that having all shapes based on their center will FOCUS you more! Legos can be griped in any of many of unaligned ways thus ruining the purity.

CENTER!

A valid point, but I think there may be some unique and interesting things that could be done with avatars, such a role-playing. Also, there is something to be said for creating an immersive (and customized) 3D environment for conducting therapy sessions.

What the hell are you talking about?

I wonder how many prims it takes to build a drug manufacturing plant? Hmmm j/k

I'm not sure myself must be time for medication.

It's well known that if you find me making sense you should seek phychitric help IMMEDIATELY.

The number of people driven mad by ghosted objects, multi-hour login waiting times, having to slide to the rulers to snap, other people's avatars not showing but their attachments do, sim crashes on the big event's opening night, .02 time dilation, random permissions changes transmuting work for pay into involuntary charity, pushguns, prims drifting just enough to make one question their sanity, scripts that don't save, scripts that compile and save but run old code, accidentally editing the only copy of your prize creation into the twilight zone, and hundreds of other common occurences in SL far exceeds the entire world psychotherapeutic industry's combined healing capacity.

We all know that many people here have become especially adept at making comments that are clearly designed to be personal attacks while at the same time carefully treading the TOS line.

That kind of commentary has been raised to a high art form here.

What I'm saying is that it's often clear who someone is talking about without that person saying who explicitly.

Again, I agree whole heartedly.

What gets my goat, is those who incessantly dish it out in this form, then scream bloody murder when they think it might apply to them.

Stop that. You're scaring me.



Agreed.

What a coincidence! Just yesterday I was thinking of making a Lucy Van Pelt psychiatric help booth. Not that I could solve anyone's problems; I just wanted to program the texture to change from "The doctor is OUT" to "...IN" depending on if I was online. Then I could go "Five Lindens, please" after saying something stupid.

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.

The mental health business is dodgy in RL at times, even with extremely well-educated professionals. I'd imagine that SL might exacerbate some of these existing weaknesses, as well as dredge up new ethical dilemmas. Or if there's medication involved, or if there are questions about medication, then RL is mandatory and cannot be replicated.

The affinity or peer group is well-suited to SL's architecture. What Support for Healing offers, to my understanding, is a break from the social isolation inherent in mental illness, something that professionals cannot provide.

More info in SPH fourms:
/205/1.html

The irony here is the tacit admission that Cocoanut's friend, whoever that may be, requires psychiatric care in Cocoanut's opinion.

Fascinating.

I don't know where to start with this, it's such a vast ocean. If there are specific questions anyone's curious about from my perspective, I'd be happy to answer 'em.