Published in 2015. Some details may be out of date. See the latest news.
There was recently discussion on a number of SLP Facebook groups on what therapists should or shouldn’t post – ASHA guidance included that SLPs should not be asking others for test scoring assistance on such pages. In the UK, we have the guidelines from HCPC:
Focus on Standards-social networking sites
More and more people are using social networking sites or blogs to communicate with friends and family. Registrants, educators and individuals studying to join the professions we regulate sometimes contact us to ask our views on the use of these sites. We recognise that these sites are a useful way of communicating and sharing information with friends or colleagues. Information places on social networking sites is in the public domain and can therefore be viewed by other people.
We rarely need to take action over a registrant’s use of social networking sites. We would only take action about a registrant using such a website if it raised concerns about their fitness to practice. For example, if we found out that a registrant had put confidential information about a service user in their blog or on their Facebook page.
You should make sure that when you use the sites , your usage is consistent with the standards that we set. The relevant standards from the standards of conduct , performance and ethics are as follows.
• You must act in the best interests of service users.
• You must respect the confidentiality of service users.
• You must keep high standards of personal conduct.
• You must behave with honesty and integrity and make sure that your behaviour does not damage the public’s confidence in you or your profession. The full standards of conduct , performance and ethics are available on the website at www.hspc-uk.org/publications.
Read more: http://www.hpc-uk.org/assets/documents/100035B7Social_media_guidance.pdf
