OPINION
Ethical challenges in an era of social networks
diffi cult to engage with professionals in the past. What do you do? In the friend request, the service user
I
states they fi nd it easier to communicate with professionals using online media before gaining the confi dence to speak to them face-to-face. You don’t want to lose the opportunity to engage and need to be conscious that you want to communicate in a way the service user fi nds comfortable. After all, as social workers, shouldn’t we be demonstrating the skills to adapt to diverse communication needs? On the other hand, what are the potential implications of accepting a friend request in this situation? One method of providing training
around such issues is to use the tools that cause these dilemmas in the fi rst place. Using mobile devices that present case study-based ethical dilemmas for social workers to consider and discuss before they arise can ensure decisions are based on considered judgments. Carefully constructed interactive case studies based on social work principles can help to explore social media engagement safely. Mobile devices and social media have become
integral to the way we communicate with one another. Taking a blanket approach of refusing to engage using this medium is not an option. One of the challenges facing the profession
is to ensure there are CPD opportunities for practitioners on dealing with the often-complex ethical issues social media presents. An eff ective way to do this is to use social media itself as a stimulus to thinking. In this way, social workers can be prepared to meet the ethical challenges that communicating in a socially networked society present.
Tarsem Singh Cooner is a social work lecturer at Birmingham University and the creator of the Social Work Social Media Mobile App
6 SOCIALWORKMATTERS JULY13
magine that, as a social worker, you receive a social media friend request to your personal account from a service user who has found it
Tarsem Singh Cooner
BLOGLOG Thoughts from the College blog
In the Support for Social Work Students online debate…
several students and NQSWs commented on how they had found their fi rst placement supervision unstructured and lacking in critical refl ection. Another asked why spirituality is not included in mainstream social work practice, arguing that it is ‘part of being culturally competent’.
Professor Eileen Munro told The College’s fi rst online
Refusing to engage with
social media is not a viable option
practice debate that the role of the principal social worker was a key element in making a shift in culture. ‘For too long, people have sought to improve help to children through providing tools and prescription to the frontline staff but this has overlooked the need to develop skills in working with people and helping them solve problems,’ she said.
When [ex-service user] Hope Daniels referred to ‘worst
nightmare’ foster carers who managed to stay on agency books years after serious complaints against them, I wondered how that could possibly have happened.
that should be explored. It could hit a number of buttons, including quality, empowerment, community
development and employment. PETE MORGAN
The horrifi c abuse and organised exploitation of young
women and girls in Oxford has again raised questions about how agencies
work to keep vulnerable children safe. ENVER SOLOMON
REBECCA JOY NOVELL
LEE BROWN
JILL SEENEY
The role of co-operatives in the provision of care services is one
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