One cop, a police force, and some social media accounts

One cop, a police force, and some social media accounts

by | Feb 23, 2014 | mental health, PhD, social media | 0 comments

Why blog about recent events in the police force? Well the purpose of my blog is to capture key learning points, reflections and even events as they emerge, which both influence my PhD research and my work role.  So when @teaandtalking live tweeted her experience from an inpatient ward I thought that was a formative moment and, with her support, blogged about it. Over the last week the mental health social media sphere has been buzzing with the suspension and resumption of Inspector Michael Brown aka @mentalhealthcop’s Twitter and blog accounts. I don’t intend to describe what happened but you can check out @Sectioned_ excellent summary if you aren’t aware of it or would like to find out more. I haven’t pestered @mentalhealthcop for an interview as he quite rightly wishes to not discuss the event in public. I am also not going to speculate about the whys and wherefores of what happened. However, with @mentalhealthcop’s blessing, I am going to share a few thoughts and reflections on what this episode might mean for public sector professionals and institutions in social media spaces. Back to the beginning (for me at least) Over the last few years Twitter and blogging, as well as other platforms, have become increasingly mainstream in the public sector.  With more and more people (particularly those in formal leadership positions) entering these spaces, and with the advent of social media guidelines for pretty much every professional group, Twitter and other platforms are increasingly being recognised and promoted as legitimate spaces for professionals to occupy. Are the stakes higher? My sense of what happened to @mentalhealthcop is...
Pros and perils of social media in a mental health inpatient setting

Pros and perils of social media in a mental health inpatient setting

by | Jan 4, 2013 | mental health, NHS stuff | 24 comments

This joint post with @chaosandcontrol came about through a Twitter conversation we had about her experience of mental health staff confiscating her smartphone whilst she was an inpatient, which she has blogged about here. There came a connecting together of minds – @chaosandcontrol’s desire to influence mental health service social media policies and my desire to improve ours so our staff have the resources they need to support people effectively. Here’s our conversation: VB – what do you think staff were worried about in terms of your use of social media when you were a patient on the ward? CaC – There was a concern that patients could write anything about themselves, other patients or staff, be it fact or fiction.  To some folks, social media is an unknown quantity, and sadly, the unknown has a great capacity to scare. You don’t have to Google very hard to find stories of employees disciplined or sacked as a consequence of posting inappropriate things on social media sites. Indeed, I wonder whether information surrounding the dismissal and disciplining of NHS staff adds fuel to the fire? Not that long ago, a pocket watch was the must have latest gadget. Were patients allowed to keep them when they were admitted to the asylum? Or, did they have to refer to the clock in the main building several fields away? I am not well read enough on my history to know the answer to that question. The point that I am trying to make is that we’re in the 21st century; smart phones, the internet and social media are not going to disappear....