Social Workers can attest first-hand to the effects that our digital lives have had on society in the last decade, especially after the proliferation of smart phones and social media. Even though technology is all around us, we might feel ill-equipped to understand, empathize, assess and provide best practices to help clients cope with our merging digital and #IRL (in real life) identities. Practicing within our competency is key to good ethics, but why must we now consider the needs of clients and their relationship to technology? To answer this, we will explore the meaning of digital health, investigate emerging research on mental health and social media and their racial inequities, delve into technology assessment tools and discuss new media literacies we can use for psychoeducation to improve digital health for us all!
By the end of this presentation participants will be able to:
• Define digital wellness
• Identify the positive and negative impacts of digital media on mental health
• Explore 3 digital assessment tools to utilize with clients (and yourselves)
• Investigate what are NEW media literacy skills
Speaker: Julie Munoz-Najar, Clinical Assistant Professor for Field Education @ Illinois Social Work
