Overview

Registration

Program
  
Travel

Sponsors

Ethical and Risk Management Challenges in Children's Behavioral Health: Cutting-edge Issues in the Digital Age

Wednesday, May 20 | 8:00 - 9:30 AM

Practitioners in children's behavioral health settings face myriad ethical challenges. Frederic Reamer, Ph.D. will explore difficult ethical dilemmas and practical strategies designed to protect clients, practitioners, and employers. The presentation will include a series of challenging ethics cases involving complex and conflicting professional duties and apply practical steps that practitioners can take to manage ethical issues skillfully and prevent lawsuits and licensing board complaints. Key topics will include boundary issues, dual relationships, conflicts of interest, confidentiality exceptions, privileged communication, informed consent, clients’ rights, termination of services, the role of artificial intelligence, and use of technology to serve clients remotely, among other topics. The presentation will include a discussion of risk management protocols, including relevant ethical standards; statutes, regulations, case law; and complex documentation issues.

Learning Objectives: 

  1. Identify challenging ethical issues in children's behavioral health.

  2. Apply practical ethical decision-making frameworks and protocols.

  3. Identify ethical issues that pose malpractice and liability risks in children's behavioral health.

  4. Implement ethics-informed strategies to protect clients, practitioners, and employers.

About the Presenter: Dr. Frederic G. Reamer, Ph.D., LCSW

Frederic Reamer has been on the faculty of the School of Social Work, Rhode Island College since 1983. His teaching and research focus on professional ethics, criminal justice, mental health, health care, and public policy. Dr. Reamer received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has served as a social worker in correctional and mental health settings. He chaired the national task force that wrote the Code of Ethics adopted by the National Association of Social Workers in and served on the code revision task force. Dr. Reamer also chaired the national task force sponsored by NASW, the Association of Social Work Boards, Council on Social Work Education, and Clinical Social Work Association that developed standards governing social workers’ use of technology in professional practice. Dr. Reamer serves as associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Work and served as editor of the Journal of Social Work Education. He also served on the State of Rhode Island Parole Board for 24 years and has been the ethics instructor for the Providence (RI) Police Department Academy since 2012.Dr. Reamer has lectured nationally and internationally on social work and professional ethics, including in India,6China, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and in various European nations. He has published 26 books and more than 200 journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles. His books include Artificial Intelligence in the Behavioral Health Professions: Ethical and Risk Management Issues; Social Work Values and Ethics; The Philosophical Foundations of Social Work; Heinous Crime: Cases, Causes and Consequences; Criminal Lessons: Case Studies and Commentary on Crime and Justice; On the Parole Board: Reflections on Crime, Justice, Redemption, and Justice; Risk Management in Social Work; The Social Work Ethics Casebook; Ethical Standards in Social Work; Risk Management in the Behavioral Health Professions; Boundary Issues and Dual Relationships in the Human Services; Ethics and Risk Management in Online and Distance Behavioral Health; Moral Distress and Injury in Human Services; Teens in Crisis: How the Industry Serving Struggling Teens Helps and Hurts our Kids; and The Social Work Ethics Audit, among others. Dr. Reamer has served as an expert witness in many court and licensing board cases throughout the United States. In 2016 Dr. Reamer was named a Social Work Pioneer by the National Association of Social Workers for his "commitment and dedication to the social work profession and to the improvement of social and human conditions at the local, state, national, and international levels.

Website Handle: https://www.ric.edu/people-directory/frederic-reamer