Spilsbury James C, Hernandez Estefania, Kiley Kimberly, Hinkes Eleanor Gillerlane, Prasanna Shivika, Shafiabadi Nassim, Rao Praveen, Sahoo Satya S
Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
J Soc Serv Res. 2022;48(6):739-752. doi: 10.1080/01488376.2022.2148037. Epub 2022 Nov 23.
To gain insight into current use of social-media platforms in human services delivery, we systematically surveyed 172 social-service workers from six agencies in a Midwest US city to gather data about social-media usage among social-service providers, potential challenges and benefits of using social media, and whether a social-media-based informatics platform could be valuable. Quantitative analyses showed that approximately half of participants have used social media to collect client-related information; nearly one-quarter indicated "often" or "nearly daily" use. Adjusting for the effects of worker characteristics, social-media use was associated with the type of agency involved and with increased tenure in social services. Adjusted results also showed that participants' comfort with using the potential application was greater in those agencies substantially involved with investigative/legal work. However, trust in the information collected by the potential application was a stronger, independent predictor of comfort using the tool. Qualitative analyses identified numerous challenges and ethical concerns, and positive and negative aspects of a social-media-based informatics platform. If the platform is to be created, work must be done carefully, fully considering ethical issues rightly raised by social service workers, existing agency policies, and professional standards. Future research should investigate ways to negotiate these complex challenges.
为深入了解社交媒体平台在人类服务提供中的当前使用情况，我们对美国中西部一个城市的六个机构的172名社会服务工作者进行了系统调查，以收集有关社会服务提供者社交媒体使用情况、使用社交媒体的潜在挑战和益处，以及基于社交媒体的信息学平台是否有价值的数据。定量分析表明，约一半的参与者使用社交媒体收集与客户相关的信息；近四分之一的参与者表示“经常”或“几乎每天”使用。在调整了工作者特征的影响后，社交媒体的使用与所涉机构类型以及社会服务工作年限的增加有关。调整后的结果还表明，在大量参与调查/法律工作的机构中，参与者对使用潜在应用程序的舒适度更高。然而，对潜在应用程序收集的信息的信任是使用该工具舒适度的更强、更独立的预测因素。定性分析确定了基于社交媒体的信息学平台的诸多挑战和伦理问题，以及其积极和消极方面。如果要创建该平台，必须谨慎行事，充分考虑社会服务工作者正确提出的伦理问题、现有机构政策和专业标准。未来的研究应调查应对这些复杂挑战的方法。
