Practice placement in social work: Innovative approaches for effective teaching and learning

Abstract

This chapter examines social media in social work practice contexts and settings and explores how agencies, organisations and practitioners can ensure it is used safely. In social work practice the barriers to engagement with social media and in particular the concerns about practitioner and service user/carer privacy and confidentiality are amplified and this chapter explores the opportunities which social media presents in practice contexts as well as the possible threats. New communication technologies have the potential to contribute a great deal to social work practice benefitting service users, and practitioners, adding novel dimensions to practice just as long as they are used ethically by practitioners who are aware of the importance of professional boundaries.