Ethical Use of Social MediaPresented by Kathy G. Slaughter, LCSW

Soaring Heart Counselingwww.soaringheartcounseling.com

"Conversationprism" by Brian Solis and JESS3 - http://www.theconversationprism.com/. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Conversationprism.jpeg#/media/File:Conversationprism.jpeg

The Wild West

Ethics: Different than Law, Different than Policy

Activity Time!Brainstorm what kind of ethical dilemmas you might encounter online or offline due to

social media, for example:

• You are in recovery and tweeting about your own 12-step meeting. A new client learns about it through twitter and attends your meeting.

• You follow a personal blog about depression regularly. You realize a new client is the writer of that blog while reading the blog at home. The client discloses something in her blog that is clinically relevant.

• You are part of an online community for a minority subculture of which you are a member. An acquaintance from that community contacts you about therapy services.

• Your specialty is sexual assault. You write a blog post about having compassion for pedophiles. You also work with childhood sexual assault survivors.

Discuss how you would handle them

Professional Standards

The “Anonymous” Web

General Strategies:• Publish a social media policy • Maintain your privacy settings• Trim your networks• Be intentional & remember no absolute privacy or anonymity• Educate your friends & family about privacy needs

• Optional: use separate personal and professional accounts

Platform Specific Tactics

Thank you!Kathy G. Slaughter, LCSW

kathy@soaringheartcounseling.comTwitter: @SoaringIndy

Blog: www.soaringheartcounseling.com