Table 2.

Selected articles with the theme of mobile phones and social work

Article	Summary
Casacuberta [10]	Theoretical reflection. It claims and contends that digital training for social inclusion must be a cognitive, as opposed to a merely instrumental, process.
Garcés [16]	Theoretical reflection. It contends that the social worker must include the social factor in therapies involving patients with mental health problems; providing the resources for social inclusion and rehabilitation, and intervening in psychosocial therapies alongside psychologists and other professional therapists.
de Federico [14]	Theoretical reflection on the role of Social Networks in the Internet and the social work field. It claims that the possibilities offered by the Internet to psychosocial therapies need to be studied.
Travieso and Planella [39]	Theoretical reflection. Critical evaluation of ICT use; it shows that digital inclusion does not mean social inclusion. Social exclusion is more complex and involves knowing how ICTs are used in key aspects of active citizenship, such as autonomy, work, social inclusion and the production of knowledge.
Garcés [17]	Theoretical reflection. It claims that the social worker must fulfil a rehabilitation and integration role.
Soto et al. [38]	Theoretical reflection on cyber therapies as social intervention methodologies. It claims that there are no differences between the results observed in online and face to face therapies.
Rubia [37]	Empirical study from Brazil based on interviews to vulnerable women and involving the use of telephones and text messaging. It confirms that mobile phones support family life, the work and general wellbeing of the families.
Horvath et al. [20]	Empirical study from the United States on text messaging in retroviral treatments with HIV patients. It claims that text messaging therapies are more effective and display a lower dropout rate when compared with face to face therapies.
Arriazu and Fernadez [5]	Theoretical reflection involving Internet use in the social work field, identifying emerging forms of socio-sanitary participation and intervention; they introduce and observe the development of computer apps designed as Internet based social services.
Rearmer [35]	Theoretical reflection based on the observation of cases in the United States. It states that technology has changed the nature of social work practice. It can provide online counselling services and web based interventions, electronic social networks, e-mail and text messaging. The introduction of these digital technologies and electronic social services create ethical risks.
Barreto et al. [6]	Empirical study. Qualitative research from Brazil based on interviews to social care professionals who deal with abused women living in shelters. They confirm the scarcity of resources and the problems surrounding mental health care.
Lopez [25]	Empirical study from the United States, involving therapists and patients, to demonstrate the effectiveness of ICT as a support tool in face to face psychosocial therapies involving vulnerable people. He observes that text messaging is less effective when compared to video or chat messaging. He reflects on the Socio-Therapeutic Alliance.
Lopez [26]	Empirical study from the United States, based on a web of psychosocial services. He shows that the web may offer a feeling of closeness, calmness, tranquillity, of being “permanently connected”, as well as reminders of what they were or should be doing, a connection with the group and an increased trust of the patient towards the therapist. He claims that no differences were observed between face to face and web therapy patients.
Martínez-Fernández et al. [27]	Empirical study in Guatemala involving a health system and mobile phones in indigenous rural areas. They study the impact amongst pregnant women and observe a statistical reduction of maternal and infant mortality.
Rearmer [36]	Theoretical reflection on the ethical challenges surrounding ICT in terms of privacy and confidentiality. He introduces online therapy as an instrument that, in the hands of the clinical social worker, enables the recording positive/negative messages from the patient. He evaluates the relevance and the utility of Social Networks, such as Facebook, in the prevention of relapses, postpartum depression, mood disorders, alcoholism etc. The author insists that social workers must know and follow the laws and codes of conduct; the development of strict protocols that ensure confidentiality is of the utmost necessity.
Bryant et al. [8]	Theoretical reflection based on cases from Australia. They contend that online social work in rural areas and remote communities must not become a “Macdonalization of Social Services”, dehumanizing direct relationships; yet they speak positively of the results obtained with videoconference. They advocate a social work that combines online therapy with face to face visits, in other words, hybrid online and face to face health care systems.