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.
- Your action of ‘un-friending’ Jenny will not address the issue. She may still continue to post criticism of you and may see your action as further evidence that you are only concerned about covering your back particularly when you ignore her second friend request.
- As other people, possibly including colleagues (if they are your social media friends), have seen the post, if you do not report it to your manager, there is a risk that people think you have something to hide.
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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