Course Overview
Ethical decision-making is particularly challenging when working with clients who are adolescents. Legal rights, ethical concerns, and guidelines change as your client ages. A 10-year-old is a child in every legal and developmental sense of the word. As puberty happens the individual’s cognitive abilities, education and life experiences impact their decision-making capacity. Depending on the country or state you work in, laws vary around privacy, right to give or withhold consent, driving, alcohol use, school attendance, parent’s rights, responsibilities, and more. By 18 or 21 most governments recognize individuals as legal adults. Science tells us that full developmental growth continues until our mid-twenties. This workshop will focus on ethical decision-making and resources to support the professional in that process. The critical role of consultation with colleagues and experts in the field as a standard of ethical professional behavior will be explored. Creating a thought-out approach for ethical decision-making ensures that you are supporting your clients the best you can as they move through adolescence to adulthood.
This intermediate level course is appropriate for psychologists, social workers, counselors, and other helping professionals who work with adolescents in their practice.
In this training you will be able to...
Describe the framework of ethical and legal guidelines that impact professionals working with adolescents.
Describe the importance of identifying the “client” and the “role” of the professional in any interaction with a family group and the impact this has on ethical guidelines.
Utilize communication strategies with their clients and families to prevent, assess and manage ethical dilemmas.
Develop a plan regarding professional consultation to address ethical dilemmas.
Laura Gaines, MSW, LISW-S
Laura Gaines, MSW, LISW-S. Laura is a trainer and researcher with a current focus on resilience as an individual and community skill. She has been an Ohio Child Welfare Training Program trainer and curriculum developer for over 20 years. Laura has served as a volunteer on the Crisis Text Line since April 2020.
Her career experiences include being a child and adolescent therapist for over 20 years, and 15 years working with children and adults who have developmental disabilities, thus providing thousands of opportunities to work with clients and their families in moments of crisis. Laura has specialized training in Trauma Informed Care and presented at the 2021 Ohio Children’s Alliance conference: Eighth Annual Trauma Informed Care Summit. Her trainings focus on child development, mental health, developmental disabilities, ethics, trauma-informed care, resilience, and each person’s individual solutions to their life’s challenges.
What People Are Saying
Safiya D.
"I appreciated the real life examples of situations that they have encountered, and how they approached it."
Amanda L.
"This was a great
training."
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