| Social networking has created an online community that leads to new ethical challenges that have not yet been addressed by the social work profession. There is a current lack of education, training, supervision, and policy to guide professionals on the ethical navigation of social media. The purpose of this study was to gather information to design an outline for a training program to assist social work professionals in decision making when their personal use of social networking leads to ethical dilemmas. A participatory action research approach was utilized. A sample size of 11 focus group members was utilized. Two semi-structured focus group were used to design this training outline. Data was gathered through transcripts of the focus groups, a demographic questionnaire, and a field journal. Qualitative data analysis was used. Findings from this study fall under six themes; professional boundaries, unintended disclosure, security and privacy, professional use of social media, policy and, training and education. Participants agreed that increased education and attention to policy will provide social work professionals with the tools and knowledge necessary to make informed decisions when confronted with potential ethical challenges in their personal use of social networking. There is some existing literature regarding social networking and behavioral health ethics and even less literature specific to social work ethics. This study attempted to add to the literature by engaging in an action research study that focused on the intersection of social work ethics and social workers' personal use of social networking. |
