I'm sorry, you've made the wrong decision.
Here are some points that you need to consider. You should have included all of these in your reflective activity.
- Your action in responding to Jenny’s private message and agreeing to meet her in this situation indicates that you do not have a clear understanding of professional boundaries. Although Jenny is no longer in your direct care and support, you and your organisation may still have statutory responsibilities towards her. By forming this relationship with Jenny, you could place yourself in a conflict of interest. For example, what would happen if she disclosed something to you as a friend and asked you to keep it confidential but you felt you should pass on to a worker?
- If you are concerned that she may be feeling lonely or not coping, you should share this with her care manager. You may not be aware of the plan of care and all the support that is being given to Jenny, so your actions could actually undermine work that is already being done with her.
- Depending upon the security settings that Jenny has on her account, her posts may be shared with a lot of people that you may not wish to see the picture, including carers and relatives of other people receiving services from you. This could damage your professional reputation and lead to your suitability to be a social service worker being questioned.
- Also depending upon the security settings on your account, your contact information and personal posts may now be available to people who you would not want to have these.
- Agreeing to meet Jenny again indicates that you are not aware of how she might regard your relationship. While you may only be doing this to provide her with support, she could regard this as confirmation that you want to be her friend. This could lead to expectations on her part that put you in a more vulnerable position, which you find difficult to withdraw from. Also, this could lead to a negative impact on her self-esteem and affect the chance of positive outcomes of living more independently.
When you received the initial friends request from Jenny, right thing to do was to not to respond to it and to contact her care manager right away. You can find more about why this was the right thing to do here.
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