Here's a great article about the ethics of a social worker being active on Facebook and Twitter. Fortunately I don't have this issue as I am retired from the profession, but here is what the author, Lisa Kays, MSW, said in her article: Must I Un-Friend Facebook? Exploring the Ethics of Social Media in The New Social Worker - Online.
It is how I send, receive, and accept social invitations; participate in civic action, including policy advocacy; get my local, national, and international news; forge ties with out-of-state family and friends that I may not otherwise communicate with as regularly; exercise my sense of humor and creativity; share and receive information relevant to my life and interests; and keep up with professional trends and contacts.
For this reason, it is my belief that as a social work student and aspiring therapist, it is my duty to find a way to interact with social media in a way that is respectful and mindful of my clients and my profession as a whole.
As a result, I locked down my Twitter account and hid my Facebook profile in search. I find myself doing more self-censoring of information I post, not because it would violate confidentiality or be overtly inappropriate, but because I am now more mindful that the joke I was making may be misconstrued or cause misunderstandings that might reflect poorly on the social work profession. I deleted my personal blog.
Lisa explores the Social Work Code of Ethics as how the code relates to her involvement in social media. It is not easy to be a "blank slate" in the therapeutic relationship. Or should we be?
I always look at my involvement via Twitter, Facebook and this blog as though what I write is an open book to the world. Therefore, I don't write anything I wouldn't want my son, or my best friend to read. That seems like a pretty good screen for me!
How have other social workers handled social media?
4 comments:
I agree that posting on social media can be a tricky issue. My personal posts on facebook are not rekated to my work. I do not friend clients. I do think a blog is a good way to reach clients as well as coworkers with beneficial information such as resources. However, even in a blog, no information directed at a specific client should be posted as they might be identified.
It is interesting that this was just posted yesterday. Last week I began my 4th course for my doctorate in social work, "Technology in Social Work." This is exactly the issue we discussed last week. Of particular interest in discussions was the issue of boundaries in "friending" former clients or students. How much time needs to elapse before it's okay to have contact, if any?
The issue of dual relationships is not new. We've always had to be mindful of these relationships. It's just that we now have the opportunity for a public prescence that expands past what we ever experienced in the past. It is truly an ethical dilemma.
It's amazing how much information shows up when I google my real name! In the past months, I've made my facebook private and deleted a number of people from my friends list. Furthermore, I've gone and deleted numerous social networking accounts I no longer use.
When posting on facebook, I try to avoid discussing work. On my blogs, I avoid using my real name and keep any identifying information hidden if I do discuss my job. My job's policy manual actually has a section that restricts employees from discussing anything about the company.
When it comes to social media, one has to be extra careful as a social worker. You never know who will see what you post!
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