Social Work and Social Media

Victoria Hart (Mental Health Social Worker)

Helen Roberts (Supervising Social Worker)

Why are we here?

Provide a guide through ‘social media’ and some discussion about how and why we would use it in social work

Why listen to us?

Combined social work experience of nearly two decades in practice

Active users of social media Practice Educator

…and because we’re all you’ve got for the next 45 minutes

What is media?

Newspapers Television Journals Magazines Website Content

Media is presented knowledge and information

What is Social Media?

“facebook is all the people who you used to know, twitter is all the people

who you wish you knew”

- an internet person (2012)

What is Social Media?

Hello!

We are @VictoriaHart and @HelenRoberts, but #socialmedia is

not just about #twitter

How much do you know?

Top Five UK ‘Social Networking/Sites’

Facebook YouTube Twitter Yahoo Answers GumTree

How many?

Users of Facebook?

900 million+

Users of Twitter

140 million

Users of Mumsnet

2 million

But..

Biggest isn’t always Best Depends on what you want to do –

and where/why you want to do it?

Catch up with old school friends or mum?

>> Facebook

Discuss details of Mental Capacity Act and DoLs legislation?

>> KnowledgeHub

Social Media

What is Social Media?

Personal or “photos of your lunch”

facebook instagram flickr last.fm twitter Pinterest

What is Social Media?

Professional or “hey, we should do lunch sometime”

linked.in facebook twitter flickr instagram

… wait, do you see what I see?

But also

Blogs (personal / professional) that can be added to/commented on (tumblr, WordPress)

Forums (CareSpace)

Email lists (MHLO)

Newspaper articles which allow comment

What is Social Media?

Personal and Professional networks on the internet are one in the same

Businesses use social media to promote, employees use social media to communicate, individuals use social media to discover… and share photos of their lunch

What is Social Media?

The Interconnectedness of Life and Social Media

What do you want to share?

Where do you want to share it?

Who do you want to share it with?

Are you sure about that?

Who would you want to see this? Your graduation photos Photos of your children Achievements in the workplace A photo of your lunch A work night out Your stag / hen do photographs

Everybody? Nobody?

.. And read this

Your opinions on the latest offer at Amazon

Your review of the last film you downloaded

Your view on Britain’s Got Talent last night

Your views on the current government How you felt at work yesterday

Nothing is Sacred

If you upload something to the internet, expect it to stay there AND be publicly accessible

Archive.org Caching and google searches Archiving and permanency are the

aims of the internet, we create history every day

Privacy

“Privacy Settings” – how private is your data?

“But my facebook account is private” – great, but how well do you know all 487 of your “friends”?

How much do you want to share?

How does this link to Social Work?

Social Work and Social Media - we are all social creatures at heart

We need to communicate and share and have feelings about things

The internet, statistically, contains a lot of social workers

Some of those social workers use social media

Social Media

Which social networks do you use?

Do you use them as yourself or under a pseudonym? Why?

Do you have different usernames for different services?

Anonymous? Think again

Never assume anonymity – even if you don’t use your ‘real name’ – you are still bound by guidelines and conduct

Interconnectedness

The aim of social media is to participate – not necessarily “either / or” about being anonymous or not, can maintain separate accounts successfully IF done correctly

Try to find out your employers policies regarding social media and always stick to GSCC codes re: confidentiality, even if you think you’ve anonymised

Use your common sense, anonymous doesn’t mean unaccountable

GSCC Codes to note

1. As a social care worker you must protect the rights and promote the interests of service users and carers

2. As a social care worker you must strive to maintain the trust and confidence of service users and carers

5. As a social care worker you must uphold public trust and confidence in social care services

6. As a social care worker you must be accountable for the quality of your work and take responsibility for maintaining and improving your knowledge and skills

The Profession

Social work is not just a profession, it is a lifestyle – live, breathe, eat (maybe not) social work!

When a social worker misbehaves or breaks the codes, it is public knowledge

You are the public face of professionalism – “practice as if you will end up on the front page of the Sun – faultless!”

Common Sense

Service users have the internet too – do you want them to know you like to share photos of fluffy kittens?

Power dynamics – if service users know this information, it blurs the boundaries

Never “friend” a service user!

Sourcing Resources

When training budgets are low – opportunities to learn and to guide our own learning grow

Read established blogs to source useful research

Use forums such as KnowledgeHub/CareSpace to ask experts, and give your own expert knowledge back

Resources - Forums

KnowledgeHub

Resources - Forums

CareSpace

“Named” Blogs

Martin Webber http://martinwebber.net/

“Anonymous” Blogs

http://hownottodosocialwork.wordpress.com/

http://socialjerk.wordpress.com/

Social Jerk

how not to do social work

Building a positive view of social work

Be a responsible ambassador for the profession

Build links with campaigning organisations and service user led organisations

Listen/Learn

Communicate!

… and don’t be scared to do so

Challenges

The internet is one huge distraction – full of kittens

Anonymity vs. Openness Personal vs. Professional Noise to Signal ratio

… sometimes social media can feel like a thousand tiny voices all screaming at once

You can never have too many kittens

Benefits

Can meet people you otherwise would have never come across in usual circumstances i.e. a social worker in the Bronx who tweets about Glee!

Can assist in finding information / harvesting the minds of experienced professionals

Networking – (how do you think us lowly social workers landed a gig at Community Care live otherwise ?!)

The Future

Curation more important than location

Means to an End not an End in itself

No “right” or “wrong” (just guidelines!)

Guidelines urgently needed – HPC, GSCC, College of Social Work… anybody! (Call us!)

Resources - Discussion forums

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/carespace

https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk http://www.gscc.org.uk/ http://my.basw.co.uk/

Resources - Blogs

http://themaskedamhp.blogspot.co.uk/ http://

hownottodosocialwork.wordpress.com/ http://martinwebber.net/ http://www.thementalelf.net/ http://mentalhealthcop.wordpress.com/ http://socialjerk.wordpress.com/

Thank you for listening

Any questions?