The Development and Delivery of New Digital Oncology Mental Health Solutions

By Alexandra Gubin, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C, and Kristin Scheeler, MSSW, CAPSW, OSW-C

The landscape of health care and the medium in which it is delivered continues to innovate toward digital health solutions, especially since the pandemic. With the prevalence of telehealth, health care workers, including social workers, are learning to navigate a virtual-based health system; the virtual setting represents a novel environment for many oncology social workers who have been educated and trained in the traditional clinical practice setting. As telehealth and digital health continues to evolve, it is imperative that oncology social workers be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skill set to provide quality care, that upholds the values of the NASW Code of Ethics, to people impacted by cancer.

There are growing opportunities for social workers to be involved in and help lead the development and delivery of new digital oncology mental health solutions. Social workers excel at meeting patients where they are, and digital interventions present new ways of offering oncology-specific care outside of and in addition to traditional practice settings. Social work involvement in the delivery and evaluation of these interventions is essential to understand impact and ensure efforts to reach underserved populations are being met. Furthermore, there is an important role that social workers are now needing to play in both teaching patients how to use technology but also advocating in their healthcare spaces for tools that improve their support from a technology perspective.

While the National Association of Social Work (NASW) has developed standards for the utilization of technology in social work practice, there remains no formal guidelines in the field of oncology social work specifically. As digital health continues to evolve, it is imperative that oncology social workers be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skill set to provide quality care that upholds the values of the NASW Code of Ethics and meets the more specific needs of people impacted by cancer. To identify best clinical practices and begin the process of creating formal practice guidelines for the field of oncology social work, it is essential to first more fully explore and seek to understand how oncology social workers from different healthcare environments have transitioned to online or virtual solutions.

To that end, the Virtual Health SIG has been established by AOSW! The goal of the Virtual Health SIG is to provide a forum where oncology social workers can share their experiences/reflections from a virtual care practice environment, learn from each other, and begin to formalize standards of virtual based psycho-oncology practice guidelines. The Virtual Health SIG meets the second Thursday every other month at 4 p.m. ET and is led by Kristin Scheeler of Susan G. Komen and Alexandra Gubin of OncoHealth.

At our April SIG meeting, we were greeted by Dr. Frederic Reamer, a key social worker in developing the NASW Technology Standards and prolific writer about professional ethics, including ethics while working in the virtual space as a social worker. Among his various insights, he shared with us about ethical and risk-management issues related to:

• How the virtual environment shapes the nature of the therapeutic relationship between the client and practitioner in ways that many of us who were taught to practice in traditional clinical settings could not anticipate
• The implications of informed consent in a virtual environment
• The question of boundaries and vulnerability of dual relationships to occur especially with the growth of social media

For more information about Dr. Reamer’s presentation, and to connect with fellow oncology social workers facing questions around virtual oncology social work, please consider joining the Virtual Health SIG! Our next meeting will be Thursday, June 13, at 4 p.m. ET. Please also consider checking out the virtual health related presentations at the upcoming conference.

Thanks!
Allie and Kristin