Petition Against CareDash.com

PsiAN penned a letter and petition with nearly 2,500 signatures to the Federal Trade Committee (FTC) and the Attorneys General of New York, Illinois, and California to object to the misleading business practices of CareDash.com (now defunct), an online directory of medical and mental health practitioners. In our view, CareDash is neither transparent nor trustworthy. Far from its nicely worded mission, CareDash functions to drive potential referrals only to CareDash and BetterHelp.com affiliated clinicians. CareDash receives commissions from BetterHelp, uses the names and information about therapists without their knowledge or consent for the purposes of CareDash’s and BetterHelp’s profits. None of this is clearly stated up front on its website.

As mental health practitioners and stakeholders, we are concerned not only about the damage to our trade, but also to the impact of this duplicitous practice on prospective patients. Therapists take very seriously the need to have accurate, reliable information available about their services as part of the ethical conduct of their therapeutic practice. For people in need, obtaining accurate, trustworthy, and reliable information about therapists and engaging with a trusted therapist is the first and very important step to getting help.

August 2022

UPDATE: Days after our petition was launched, BetterHelp and Talkspace quietly exited their marketing agreements with CareDash! We celebrate this, and continue to push for clarity and accounting with CareDash. We won’t stop until CareDash allows therapists control over their own profiles, and stops their practice of using therapists’ names and likenesses without their knowledge or consent.

UPDATE FEB. 2023: CareDash is closed down and will dissolve its business.