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.
- Responding to the friend request means that rather than alerting services that could help Jenny, you are acting independently. This could place Jenny at greater risk of harm as she is not able to receive appropriate care and support. You are also likely to call into question your reputation and professionalism, and possibly the reputation of your service and employer.
- Simply responding to the friend request also demonstrates that you do not appear to understand your duty of care and your responsibilities to promote the support and protection of Jenny. Your organisation will have policies and procedures in place about reporting concerns. Your action means that you are not following these which could lead to disciplinary action taken against you by your employer. Also, it could also lead to an investigation by the SSSC which could result in sanctions.
- If you sent the response in your own time, outside of work, you might think that has nothing to do with your employer or the SSSC. However, the SSSC Code of Practice for Social Service Workers states that you must not behave in a way outside of work that calls into question your suitability to be a social service worker. So, you could still find that your actions are investigated.
- You have now also placed yourself in a vulnerable position as Jenny’s post has shown. Your professional and personal reputation is at risk as many people will have read her post including friends and colleagues. This could lead to your professionalism and judgment being questioned as well as your ability to maintain appropriate boundaries.
- Simply responding to her post with one of your own is likely to only make things worse. There is a danger that this provides Jenny with an opportunity to criticise you again, and may look like you are trying to justify your actions rather than support Jenny.
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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