NASW-CA EmpowerEd Program

Course Description

This course is based on a 70-minute video recording of a live presentation by Dr. Frederic G. Reamer, PhD, the keynote speaker during a NASW-CA chapter conference. In this course, Dr. Reamer provides an overview of the remarkable developments in professional ethics, including in-depth examination of compelling ethical challenges in social work and behavioral health. Today’s practitioners face ethical challenges that are unprecedented and could hardly have been imagined by social work’s earliest practitioners. Contemporary social workers provide services and communicate with clients using social networking sites, e-therapy, online chat rooms, moderated forums, web-based psychoeducation, self-guided web-based intervention, videoconferencing, avatar therapy, and so forth. Today’s social workers also continue to face long-standing ethical challenges related to the disclosure of confidential information, informed consent, boundaries, dual relationships, conflicts of interest, documentation, and termination of services. To complete the course, registrants read online content and complete a reader exercise before viewing a 70-minute video recording of the presentation.

Target Audience

This course can be used to meet the California LCSW/LMFT license renewal requirement of six hours/CEUs of law and ethics training every two years. This course is also appropriate as continuing education or professional development for social workers nationwide.

Learning Objectives

After completing this course, readers will be able to do the following:

• Identify trends in the development of social work ethics in the digital age.
• Identify challenging ethical issues and dilemmas in social work.
• Apply practical ethical decision-making frameworks and protocols.
• Identify ethical issues that pose malpractice and liability risks.
• Design strategies to protect clients and practitioners, such as developing a social media policy and sharing it with all clients.