Running head: WILD CARD ASSIGNMENT 1

Wild Card Assignment

EJ Joyner
Wake Forest University
WILD CARD ASSIGNMENT 2

Wild Card Assignment

Summary

I chose to listen to an episode of the podcast, The Thoughtful Counselor, called “ Online

Counseling and Telemental Health – A Conversation with Telehealth Certification Institute’s Ray

Barrett.” This episode covers telemental health, it’s history, legal and ethical concerns

associated, the informed consent process, and how to become credentialed. The podcast is

produced and hosted by Mike Shook but the speaker in this episode is Ray Barrett, , LMHC, LPC,

DCC, M.S. Barrett has worked in private practice, for an EAP program, and elsewhere providing

telemental health counseling as a practitioner and trainer. Additionally, Barrett developed

several training courses on telemental health, founding the Telemental Health Certification

Institute. The major learning outcomes of the episode were a brief history (including that Freud

used to write letters to clients), touching on legal and ethical codes in the US, issues of if the

informed consent and other things to include that may not be included in an inperson informed

consent, and finally emergency management planning.

Reflections on Ethics
Barrett directly addressed ethical and legal issues associated with providing telemental health

services. He reiterated that codes and laws vary from state to state within the United States

and it is very important to check the regulations in place. For example, some in states the

location of service provided is where the actual client is located, while in others it is where the

counselor is located, and still in others it includes both locations. This means that depending on

the state, a counselor may need to be licensed in multiple states (including where their client is

located) if they are providing services to someone outside of the jurisdiction of the state they
WILD CARD ASSIGNMENT 3

are currently in. In North Carolina, the service is considered to take place in both locations so I

provider must be licensed in both NC and the state that their client is located. Barrett also

noted that there is no case law directly concerning mental health services across jurisdiction

lines.

Barrett spent time going over the informed consent process and the emergency management

process, both ethical points that I was curios about. He noted that with telemental health it is

important to add some additional factors such as ensuring that a client talks from a private

location, making a plan for technology failures, and ensuring that the client is a good candidate

for telemental health services and has realistic expectations. Additionally, he noted the

importance of talking about an emergency management plan and establishing an emergency

contact as well as being familiar with the emergency services in the clients location.

Overall, I thought that Barrett addressed most of my immediate thoughts on the ethics of

providing telemental health services and pointed to resources to learn more.

Overall Reflections
I really enjoyed listening to this podcast on telemental health. I found it particularly interesting

because it seems as if this will become a more and more popular method of delivering services

to clients. I am interested in this method of counseling down the road so I wanted to learn

more about it now. I liked that Barrett outlined some ethical and legal issues and addressed

some things to go over more thoroughly like the informed consent process and ensuring you

know your states laws. He also addressed the certification process which was interesting and
WILD CARD ASSIGNMENT 4

something I would look into further. Finally, he did address some issues with technology and

protecting privacy but I’d like to learn more about this.

References

Shook, M. (Producer). (2017, November 24). Online Counseling and Telemental Health: A

Conversation with Telehealth Certification Institute’s Ray Barrett [Audio Podcast]. The

Thoughtful Counselor. Retrieved from https://wp.me/p7R6fn-hS