Over recent weeks, social media has been causing a bit of a storm in the social care & health care sector.
The Guardian carried a story yesterday over the dangers of nurses and health care professionals interacting with patients over the Internet. With Facebook & Twitter being more popular than ever before, how long will it be until they become formal mediums of support?
Helplines such as ‘Childline’ would have, at some stage, been a revolutionary idea, combining brand new telephonic technology with social issues. Support and personal advice was offered from a person miles away, having never met the caller. At one point in time, such an idea would have been unheard of.
Are we now facing a time when Twitter will become a major player in supporting service users and patients? A place where troubled teens and adults can seek help and advice from real professionals in real time? For some, this may seem far fetched, but it is already taking place on a small scale.
- How long before social media becomes a standard medium of care & support?
Last week the Guardian again ran a similar story on the boundaries that need to be set before it’s too late. Since social media is designed to be viewed & shared by as many people as possible, how can we keep up with confidentiality policies? Will we suddenly see people ‘ReTweeting’ somebodies most private information?
We, as a care provider, currently do not dabble in interacting with service users via social media such as Twitter. However as the craze goes on, how long will it be until care provides such as ourselves are forced to engage with their service users?
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