UPCOMING GROUP TRAINING in 2018
MAY
11
BEYOND ETHICS, LLC WORKSHOP
1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
CO Executive Club
1776 S. Jackson Street, Denver
“Self-Protective Practices for High-Risk Cases”
OCTOBER
12
BEYOND ETHICS, LLC WORKSHOP
1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
CO Executive Club
1776 S. Jackson Street, Denver
“Authentic Use of Self in Legal Involvement”
NOTE: These workshops are great way to get some self-protective information at a reasonable rate (less expensive than my private consultations) AND to obtain 3.0 CPDs for your renewal process. I will hand out certificates at the end of the seminars. The cost is $75 for 3 hours or a discounted rate for NASW members (you register through NASW web site). NASW-CO is a co-sponsor for the Beyond Ethics training I will be providing in 2018 in Colorado.
You can also use the workshop to facilitate networking and to establish a clinical and/or litigation peer consultation group if you do not already belong to one. I will give time at break for such networking and encourage it during the seminar, so you can meet other practitioners there who are also looking to form such groups.
In the workshops, I always incorporate some type of ethical conundrums for high-risk clinical practices, including ways to manage high-risk clinical practices that involve demands for records from clients and/or attorneys. I also help clinicians understand how to prepare for depositions and/or trial testifying.
Trainings are three (3) hours and will be held from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on the Fridays listed above.
NOTE: If you are not on Deb’s email list for Beyond Ethics, LLC trainings and would like to receive notification (or your friend or colleague isn’t getting this email and wants to sign up), please go to beyond-ethics.com and sign up for Deb’s newsletter and training email notices.
Reviews
Some of the participants had this to say about Deb’s training:
- “Very helpful and informative. Thank you!”
- “Great info – very knowledgeable and great examples. Great reminders as well as some new nuggets.”
- “Could have listened to you all day! Great info. Lots to think about.”
- “Very good! Lively! Engaging! Knowledgeable! Very important information. Perfect timing.”
- “Deb presented excellent information that I feel will help me with my practice. Excellent info! Great workshop.”
- “I attend multiple, legal, ethical practice trainings and Deb is excellent in presentation. Thank you!”
- “Great advice about staying balanced/grounded in testifying.”
- “I appreciate Deborah being both a clinician and an attorney. Frightening possibilities regarding DORA, but [she helped me] know what possible protections I can possibly provide for clients and myself.”
Question/Answer Corner: What’s On Your Mind?
Q: [Let’s discuss YOUR situations in the upcoming training in May!!]
A: [Participants will be an active part of the discussion of various dilemmas and challenging situations presented in the upcoming workshop May 11th]
Blog
A New Adventure (or, “An Old Dog Plans to Learn a New Trick!!”)
I recently got a wild hair to do something I have wanted to do for many, many years. Time never seemed to permit such a lark, what with working two careers and raising two fabulous children. (I like things in TWOs – being a Gemini, perhaps).
So, my new adventure is this: I am moving to Northampton, Massachusetts (home of Smith College School of Social Work, among many other colleges and universities in a 15-mile radius) to open a Bed and Breakfast in a Second Empire Victorian beauty built in 1868. The house is in a historic district three blocks from downtown shops and restaurants in the quirky, progressive, academic town of Northampton. One of its claims to fame is that the first Mayor of Northampton lived in the house in the late 1880s.
Other blog posts you might be interested in:
Engagement
Transforming Our Relationships With Our Adult Children
Separation Pondering, Continued
Pondering Separation of All Types
Control Versus Resilience: Emotional Balance
Multi-Career Professionals or Juggling Many Balls
DORA: What’s On the Various Boards’ Radar?
I try to attend many of the public Board meetings of all the Mental Health Boards: Social Work, Professional Counselors, Psychologists, Marriage & Family Therapists, Addiction Counselors, and Registered Psychotherapists. Each newsletter, this section will address current issues that arise in various Board meetings that may seem helpful for practicing clinicians.
Once again, I have had several frustrating, but illuminating experiences with the various Boards. I will combine these to pass the following bit of advice along to all of you who are practicing in the mental health fields in Colorado.
- Please pay strict attention to the mandatory disclosure (MD) forms that you utilize in your practices. In the event that a grievance is filed against you, the Board generally will ask you to submit your entire clinical record. All the Boards pay close attention to the MDs used by clinicians and they must adhere to the Board’s requirements.
- Additionally, it is not a valid reason to say that you (the licensee at issue in the grievance) were not responsible for the completion of the MD form in your agency. The Boards take the position that the primary therapist is responsible for having the correct MD form in the client’s record, even if another department, like Case Management, actually handled the completion of the MD along with other intake paperwork.
- Finally, be extremely cautious about voluntarily issuing any type of written opinion or recommendation at the request of an attorney. Despite your best intentions, these voluntary written statements can come back to haunt you in the form of a grievance filed by an opposing party (e.g., the other parent in a custody battle). The other party may assert that you were biased in favor of the parent with whom you have the most contact (e.g., the parent who brought the child to therapy, for example) and that you furnished your opinion without all the necessary information. I have encountered these issues when well-meaning therapists are asked to furnish a written statement about a child client not wanting to be in the presence of a parent because of alleged child abuse or child sexual abuse. The attorney for the non-abusing parent asked the therapist to furnish a letter to support a petition for a protective order or some other type of order that the abusing parent does not like (e.g., motion for supervised visits, limitation of visitation, etc.) and the therapist gets caught in the middle. BEWARE!! Do not voluntarily furnish your opinion. You can request a subpoena so that you can show the Board (if we have to defend a grievance) that you were compelled to give the court your opinion.
What people said about my most recent seminars:
- “This seminar was extremely insightful and Deb’s delivery and presentation was right up my alley!”
- “I think Deb is a great presenter.”
- “Great job as usual!”
- “Enjoy your workshops – always so informative and interesting. Time flies!”
- “I always enjoy your trainings. I appreciate your flexibility in regards to discussing audience members’ concerns/experiences.”
- “My third seminar with you — you are great! Keep on teaching this class…”
- “Always great! Thank you! Wish you had more throughout the year… You are engaging and positive.”
- “Excellent! I could not think of anything to improve on this workshop. Keep doing what you’re doing.”
- “Excellent presentation. Very informative and well thought out frame work. Thanks Deb!”
- “Presenter was engaging, knowledgeable, and very thorough.”
- “Nice work! Very interesting, especially when examining specific case studies.”
Training/Consultation For Clinicians/Agencies
I have been providing training for high risk clinical situations and legal involvement of the therapist for groups in Colorado. I consult with individual practitioners, small groups of clinicians, and agencies to help therapists prepare for deposition or trial testimony, or to handle a subpoena request for clinical records.
I am available to teleconference with individual therapists who need risk prevention consultation and/or with groups of any size for any type of self-protective, clinical practice in this litigious age. I can custom tailor training to your particular agency or small group with questions submitted in advance by participants, if desired.
Additionally, I am often in the Denver area so if an in-person meeting is preferred, we can schedule a time to meet in person when I am in town.
Legal Services Offered
- Legal Representation & Consultation for grievances (complaints) to licensing boards and/or malpractice lawsuits
- Training & Consultation for Clinicians and Agencies (e.g., respond ethically to subpoenas while protecting yourself and your clients; identify high-risk clients and situations to avoid client disciplinary complaints and harm to clients or third parties)
Final COmment
Please let others with whom you work know about my newsletters and trainings. The more clinicians who are able to receive information about staying off DORA’s radar and/or dealing with tricky attorney issues, the better. Thanks!!
Deborah (Deb) Henson is an Attorney and LCSW (Tulane School of Social Work, MSW) in private practice in Colorado and Louisiana, specializing in mental health licensing defense. She represents clinicians in DORA grievances (CO) and licensing board Complaints (LA) and regularly consults with clinicians in both states to help them deal with legal and clinical conundrums, such as: (1) the receipt of subpoenas for records or testimony; (2) the escalation of high-risk clinical situations; and (3) other sticky ethical wickets that arise in clinical practice. Deb helps clinicians develop self-protective, clinically sound and legally proper strategies for risk prevention.
Deb has taught in the MSW programs at Tulane University School of Social Work and the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. She also serves as Expert Witness for litigation cases around the country involving assertions of malpractice against clinicians. She offers Divorce Mediation long-distance (Zoom; Skype; telephone) in Colorado and Louisiana. See her website for more details.
Deb has been presenting half- and full-day seminars on “Avoiding Ethics Complaints and Malpractice Lawsuits” or “Legal and Ethical Issues in Clinical Practice” around the country through PESI, Inc. for over 7 years and presenting for many CEU groups in Louisiana and Colorado. She also has lectured for Tulane School of Social Work Continuing Education and the University of Texas School of Social Work (Austin) Continuing Professional Development program, and for many other clinical and counseling groups. Deb started her own training biz — Beyond Ethics, LLC — in 2009. Contact Deb for group presentations to agency staff and/or private practice consultation groups.
Deb can be reached through her law and social work web site: www.deborahmhenson.com or through her training web site: www.beyond-ethics.com. Deb can also be emailed at [email protected] or [email protected]. And, you can use the old tried and true method of calling her at 504.232.8884.