Question about human services and social networking sites?

Question about human services and social networking sites?Would you consider it ethical/moral/legal/etc. for someone in the human services field(mental health worker, social worker, etc.) to accept a friend request on a social networking site(such as myspace or facebook) sent by a former client/patient? This would be whether or not the human services worker and client would have a chance of seeing each other in real life due to living in a small town/community.

Answer by maxmom56
It's a bad idea.

Answer by MJ
I would not accept the request. However I would send them a message back saying it was a nice to hear from them but explain that because of ethical reasons I cannot communicate with them outside of my place of employment and hope they understand.

Answer by Michael B
Yes - it's not professional conduct. There should always be boundaries between client and therapist - during and after therapy. Always. It doesn't matter if they would see each other or not. That's part of what it means to be a professional in our field.

Michael
Host of The Psych Files podcast
Subscribe in iTunes
http://www.psychfilespodcast.com

Answer by priestessyemaya
No, I wouldn't. I don't think this is ethical at all.
It's against the principles of a lot of social work registration organizations as well. Most places require that you do not have any social contact with your clients until they have ceased to be clients for three years. I personally think it's never a good idea.

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