Thoughts on Better Help Situation
Recently, the Federal Trade Commission(FTC) released a statement about Better Help who used the private mental health information of its clients in really unethical ways. This is infuriating in so many ways with some major concerns with disclosing private mental health information and to the therapy field in general. The following blog will lay out a few major concerns and the end of the blog will have a spot to check out resources below to read more about this unfolding situation.
What the what?
In early March 2023, the FTC released a public statement on Better Help and a levied a fine against them for sharing the mental health information of its clients with Facebook and other social media sites. According to the FTC, the purpose of sharing this information was to target the friends and other connection of the clients for targeted marketing. So this really means they were using some really personal and sensitive (ie identifying) information and sharing it with Facebook in order to gain more client and money. This was especially concerning given they promised clients they would not share their information but did it anyway. According to the resource below, the fine is 7.8 million dollars against Better Help and they were banned from sharing this information in the future.
First major problem:
The first big problem in all of this is the broken trust and betrayal toward its clients in sharing information. The foundation of any clinical or therapeutic work is building a relationship through creating a trusting and private experience for a client. There is a reason we don’t meet with people in public and open spaces due to the sensitive and painful nature of the work and the information clients disclose to their therapist. As a social worker and therapist, much time is spent developing trust between myself and the client. We often cannot move forward or really do any work without creating trust; trust that information won’t be shared, having a nonjudgemental space and that anything can be said and held by the person receiving the information. This situation has broken trust and safety with so many people.
Second major problem:
The second major problem is the repeating of a traumatic and problematic pattern for many of the people engaging in therapy through Better Help. Trauma often happens in relationships and the healing can be done through relationships. The betrayal clients are feeling from this situation by an authority figure can feel similar to other ways they were betrayed by an authority figure either through physically or emotionally abusive ways as well as emotionally and other systemic ways. The use of power and privilege needs to be handled with the utmost care due to the major damage it can cause when used in an unhealthy way. The betrayal of having personal information used as a way to make more money, is deeply problematic and leads to traumatic experiences for the client who needed the care and trust of the company.
Third major problem and probably more long term impact:
When people have a sense of betrayal, it can be generalized in so many ways. Better Help was sharing information without the consent of the client and probably the therapist and people are going to be distrustful of therapy in general. Since there is still so much stigma in seeking mental health treatment, this situation can set back the work that has been done recently to normalize seeking therapy. This situation could trickle down to small group practices, agencies and even the individual therapist. Given the attention this has recently nationwide and within the therapy community, the fallout and ramifications will be long term. Therapists/Mental Health professionals will need to do a tremendous amount of repair work to rebuild the trust of our profession and provide re-assurance that we can maintain confidentiality with clients.
Last note:
There is so much more to know about the use of large companies providing mental health care. There are probably more safeguards and ways of thinking about these companies that need to happen for clients and therapist. There are other issues including low pay issues of therapists, privacy/confidentiality, how companies profit and the ways the approach those who utilize their services. Maybe the typical business model doesn’t work since they are dealing with really significant and painful experiences. A further complication with Better Help that has not been confirmed but there is a suspicion of use of AI to provide therapy and respond to the needs of clients. Another huge concern given the nature of the work, how this cuts out therapist and how this can increase profits for the company.
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