We are excited to present a special interest group within eMHIC that explores e-mental health initiatives through the lenses of ethics and law. With that in mind and as the primary aim, we hope to generate discussion and reflection of pressing issues for the field.
What do we mean by ‘ethics and law’? To put it simply, ethics provide principled guidance for action, and laws are rules enacted by the state or applied/ recognised by courts. Laws, which may be based on ethical principles, are enforceable rules with penalties for those who do not comply with them.
While ethical principles and laws can be stated plainly, applying them to specific instances may not be as straightforward. Novel aspects of new and emerging e-mental health initiatives can raise perplexing ethical and legal dilemmas.
In upcoming newsletters this year, we will be offering ethico-legal think pieces, updates, hypotheticals and commentaries, from ourselves or guest contributors. Click on the links to read the full articles.
Authors: Piers Gooding and Richman Wee (in discussion with the eMHIC Board and collaborators)*
In February 2022, eMHIC published the Position Statement “Ethics and Law as Essential to eMental Health.”
This inaugural publication was developed by the Ethics and Law Special Interest Group, comprised of subject matter experts from six countries.
