Legal and Ethical Issues for Social Workers & Psychotherapists
Presenter(s): Bruce V. Hillowe, JD, PhD
NASW-NYS Members: $30
NASW Other Chapter Members: $60
Non-Members: $75
This workshop is approved for 3.0 continuing education credit hour(s) for licensed social workers, licensed mental health counselors, licensed marriage and family therapists, and licensed psychologists.
Workshop Description
This workshop will review the essential ethical and legal background for the provision of psychotherapy by licensed master social workers and licensed clinical social workers in New York State. Practitioners will be provided with templates for record-keeping, informed consent, HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices, authorizations for the release of patient information, the form for the denial of access to patient information, risk management, termination letters, and professional will.
Topics will include:
- Beginning and planning psychotherapeutic treatment, supervision and consultation, and the basics of record-keeping; Contents of records; Foundations of standards of care, including statutes, professional regulations, caselaw and NASW Code of Ethics
- Informed consent, adults, adolescents and children; HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices
- Issues with child abuse and neglect identification and reporting in NYS
- Assessing and managing at-risk patients; the duty to protect, the NY SAFE Act
- Access to treatment records by patients, Article 18 of NYPHL, HIPAA, 21st Century Cures Act
- Confidentiality and privilege and disclosing treatment information to 3rd parties; Subpoenas; Therapists as fact witnesses
- Terminating treatment and avoiding abandonment
- Malpractice and professional discipline, risk management, most common complaints
Learning Objectives
After the completion of this webinar, participants will be able to:
- Learn current and basic ethical and legal backgrounds for psychotherapy practice
- Plan and prepare to implement record-keeping and documentation requirements for psychotherapy practice
- Analyze the process of the evaluation, reporting and recording of at-risk patients and circumstances
- Apply risk management principles without compromising clinical integrity
- Utilize tools to make clinical decisions in accordance with ethical, legal and risk management guidelines
This workshop is approved for 3.0 continuing education credit hour(s).
NASW-NYS is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers (Provider ID #0014), licensed mental health counselors (Provider ID #MHC-0053), licensed marriage and family therapists (Provider ID #MFT-0037) and licensed psychologists (Provider ID #PSY-0088).
Bruce V. Hillowe, JD, PhD, is a mental healthcare attorney with a law practice in Garden City, New York. A graduate of Binghamton University, Duke University School of Law, and Adelphi University Derner Institute (Clinical Psychology and Postdoctoral Programs), he formerly practiced as a psychologist-psychoanalyst, including as a coordinator of clinical training and director of a forensic mental health service. He was a teaching attending psychologist in law and ethics at a major teaching hospital for 15 years. He currently teaches courses in ethics and law as adjunct faculty at the Derner Institute. He is legal counsel to numerous mental health facilities, institutes, and practitioners and sponsors legal plans for professional associations. He has written articles and book chapters including for law reviews and healthcare publications, is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers in healthcare law and is a “SuperLawyer” featured in the New York Times Magazine.