The History and Ethics of Online Therapy

1055 Words5 Pages
Impact of Social Media on Social Work Profession The use of social media in the social work profession has both ups and downs. The benefits of recruiting social workers and increasing communication among professionals are some of the highlights of using social media among professionals. A drawback to the use of social media is t information posted on a social media site, can be viewed by persons other than the client or friend to which the information was meant to be viewed by. In the ever changing technology world, exciting new therapeutic possibilities via new technologies, such as “Skype” are becoming more common tools being used in the social work profession. However along with the social media and technology come questions about ethical boundaries in relation to clients, social workers, and the use of technology and social media outlets. Social media lends itself to a multiple of ethical issues: conflict of interest, privacy and confidentiality, inappropriate self-disclosure, and even dual relationships. Some of the ethical questions being raised: 1. is it proper to have a written and accessible list of boundaries which are unethical between a social worker and the client? 2. Is it ethical for the provider to accept a friend request from clients? 3. What is the proper action to take if a social media contact requests the social workers services? 4. Is looking at a client’s profile or blog an invasion of privacy or does it provide beneficial information, especially in emergency situations? 5. How can one make sure communications between a client and clinician are kept confidential? One suggestion is for agencies to have a social networking policy that is regularly updated and the policy is shared with and signed by the client. The type of policy establishes boundaries that may eliminate gray areas on an agency to-agency basis; however
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