After being in a 9-month “under review” limbo, HealthyPlace’s HONcode accreditation was revoked last month by the Health on the Net Foundation for multiple violations of the HONcode over time. The HONcode principles are a set of voluntary guidelines that suggest areas of transparency and information for medical and health oriented websites.
Here’s an example of sponsored content on HealthyPlace, with no messaging making transparent that the content was written and provided entirely by the pharmaceutical company who makes the medication (among other problems, it also lacks an author and a date of last review). (You’ll also notice this is a page which still sports the claim that they comply with the HONcode at the bottom.)
As a big resource for mental health stuff online, HealthyPlace is visited by a lot of people each month. We therefore hope to see HealthyPlace bring its content back up to the standards they once espoused and to see them once again adhere to the HONcode principles.
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From Psych Central's World of Psychology:
What Happened to HealthyPlace? - World of Psychology (11/14/2008)
3 Comments to
“HealthyPlace Loses Accreditation”
It’s also very poorly written. You would think they would bother to hire a professional writer if they’re going to display advertising copy disguised as neutral information. Then again, it’s a poor disguise — it seems obvious that it is an advertisement for Lexapro. Neutral sites don’t spell it in all caps, for one thing.
What can be done to bring HealthyPlace its content back up to the HONcode principles? Is there anything that we, as users of the website can do to help this process? Besides being a regular visitor to the site, there is a lot of information I wish I had copied from the site to have it now under the circumstances.
What can be done to bring HealthyPlace its content back up to the HONcode principles? Is there anything that we, as users of the website can do to help this process? Besides being a regular visitor to the site, there is a lot of information I wish I had copied from the site to have it now under the circumstances.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 12 Apr 2008
