The Internet has become a central part of many people’s everyday lives, used routinely for communication and interaction, shopping and business, and leisure and recreation. However, the Internet also is increasingly used as a tool for promoting health and wellbeing. This special issue addresses this growing trend. It explores the use of this extraordinarily popular technology in promoting mental health. The special issue showcases the ways in which the Internet now is being used to provide counselling, offer instant help, prevent key mental health problems such as suicide and depression, diagnose disorders, and respond to particular populations such as young people.
The Use of Technology in Mental Health reflects the ways in which technologies such as the Internet have infused every aspect of our culture. It documents that the Internet can be damaging to mental health, for example through youth’s exposure to pornography or girls’ and young women’s participation in pro-anorexia websites. At the same time, the Internet also is a force for good. The Internet has become a vital means for delivering appropriate information on health issues, reaching groups who may be unable or unwilling to access bricks-and-mortar health services, and increasingly, providing quick and even real-time counselling and other responses to people in need. Indeed, the Internet offers particular advantages in delivering public health interventions: it is highly accessible and affordable, nearly universally available, and interventions can be delivered relatively cheaply and with the ability to make rapid changes in content and form in response to experience. This special issue provides compelling Australian examples of Internet-based work, offering insights on effective practice in Internet-based health promotion and lessons for practitioners.
The special issue builds on the explosion in practice and scholarship on the use of the Internet and other technologies for health promotion. This is reflected in such journals as the Internet Journal of Mental Health, the Journal of Technology in Counseling, and Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, professional associations such as the International Society for Mental Health Online, and a rapidly expanding body of scholarship on the Internet and cyberspace.
Contents and Scope
This special issue is organised into three sections. The first section explores counselling interventions using the Internet, including internet-based means of providing counselling and preventing suicide. The second section focuses on the Internet and youth, highlighting both the negative impacts of the Internet among young people and the Internet’s positive role in delivering health services and treating various disorders. The third section focuses on issues of assessment and research, examining the use of the Internet for assessing and diagnosing particular health conditions and the ethical practice of online research.
We are pleased to present this special issue on The Use of Technology in Mental Health which contains both review and research articles. We hope you find the included peer reviewed articles both informative and thought provoking.
Michael Flood & Nadine Pelling
About the editors
Dr Michael Flood is a Research Fellow at La Trobe University, funded by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth). He is a co-editor of the International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities, and the author of academic papers on men and gender, men’s sexualities, violence against women, homosociality, fathering, anti-violence mobilisations, and youth and pornography. Dr Flood also has had a variety of involvements as a profeminist educator and activist on issues of men and gender. In particular, he is involved in community advocacy and education addressing men’s violence against women.
Nadine Pelling, PhD, earned her BA (Hon) Psychology from the University of Western Ontario in Canada and her MA and PhD in Counseling Psychology from Western Michigan University. Trained and experienced as a psychologist and counsellor, she has called Australia home since 2000. Nadine has produced over 75 publications and has made over 40 conference presentations. Nadine is a member of the Australian Psychological Society (College of Clinical Psychologists), a registered psychologist, and enjoys being active in the scientist-practitioner tradition which means engaging in applied as well as research/scholarly work. Nadine is a Fellow with the Australian Counselling Association and is also currently their research director. Nadine was also awarded the Australian Psychological Society's prestigious Early Career Teaching Award in Psychology in 2006. Nadine is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the University of South Australia, Adelaide.
Special Mention
The initial concept of a conglomeration of technology and health related articles was conceived by Professor Graham Martin from the University of Queensland. Professor Martin was the initial collector and expert peer reviewer for all of the articles eventually contained in this special issue. We thank him for allowing us to bring his idea to fruition via publication in Counselling, Psychotherapy and Health and also thank him for his initial peer reviewing and preliminary editing of all the included articles. |
