I think honesty is the best policy and best practice would say that it isn’t appropriate to be Face Book Friends with a family WHILE you are currently providing services to them. A simple explanation to the family that while you are working together this is not something you do, but once the child and family are transitioned from your caseload you would like to keep in touch with them in this way. When a family transitions I always say that they should keep in touch, they have my number and if they are FB people I might say we can be friends on FB. Truth is that I love being able to follow my former kids on FB- see pictures and watch them grow! I even have connected parents to other parents this way. I think we have to keep our personal life separate while we are working with families, but it is a great way to stay in touch.

I really like the honest and conversational way you draw the line about your Facebook account, Barbara. I’ve noticed that some people maintain professional and personal social media accounts too. Thanks for adding your ideas to the conversation!

Perhaps having a separate social media account for professional relationships could be an option. That is what I would do if I used such an account regularly. However for such requests I just say that though I have a Facebook account, I do not really use it and only check it occasionally, so that is not my preferred way to keep in touch. In my experience parents accept this and we use more old fashioned ways to share info. 🙂