Document Type

Article

Keywords

Labor Process Theory, Platform Studies, Gig Work, Direct to Consumer Telemental Health, Telehealth

Disciplines

Labor Economics | Social Work

Abstract

Therapy is now available via digital platforms brokering relationships between practitioners and clients. Licensed clinical social workers contract with direct-to-consumer digital platforms to provide tele–mental health services. We employ labor process theory (LPT) to explore the interpersonal work of therapy as a labor arrangement, arguing that the core theory of LPT is useful for analyzing the overlapping clinical and material dynamics of conducting social work in online environments. We extend LPT analyses of gig work to the behavioral health field. Although platforms attract social workers by promising autonomy, the managerial controls that platforms exert and the emotional labor that social workers perform as they care for and retain their clients both complicate the realization of such autonomy. These labor arrangements actively constrain social workers’ clinical judgment and the ability to manage their workload. By restructuring the delivery of therapeutic services, digital platforms encroach on professional social work practice.

Publication Title

Social Service Review

Volume

97

Issue

4

Article Number

1022

Publication Date

12-2023

First Page

000

Last Page

030

DOI of Published Version

https://doi.org/10.1086/726660

Language

English

Peer Reviewed

1

Version

Published

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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