Past Courses

This webinar is designed for social work professionals seeking to deepen their knowledge of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Every community is is impacted by traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBI happens in a variety of age groups and populations with varying severity, from things like domestic violence, motor vehicle accidents, sports injuries, accidents/falls, community violence, and military injuries. Due to varied presentation and lack of external visibility, traumatic brain injury is often misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed, leading to increased challenges and barriers for these individuals. Appropriate screening and advocacy by social workers can have a crucial positive impact for these individuals. Participants will learn to identify the symptoms and symptom clusters unique to TBI for improved screening during social work assessments, as well as learning common interventions and additional supportive resources to provide. This course will improve participants’ understanding of the prevalence and challenges of TBI among key populations including adult and child survivors of domestic violence, (including those involved in child protective services) athletes, and veterans.

By the end of the lecture, attendees will:
- Understand short-term and long-term symptoms and implications of TBI on cognitive, psychosocial, and behavioral well-being.
- Learn many symptoms of TBI and presentation during social work assessments to improve screening for identifying TBI in clients.
- Explore the prevalence of TBI in different populations, with a focus on some at higher risk such as survivors of domestic violence, families engaged with child protective services, and athletes.
- Develop strategies for supporting clients with TBI by learning the types of medical and psychological resources most commonly needed in this TBI population.

Recent years have witnessed a drastic increase in anti-trans policies and legislation proposed and pass across the U.S. Given the ethical mandates of the profession and the values rooted in social justice, social workers must be at the forefront of addressing these harmful policies and the rhetoric surrounding them. Clinical and macro practitioners alike have a critical role to play in supporting transgender and gender expansive children and adults, as well as their families, and advocating against policies that seek to do harm to transgender people. This workshop will first provide social work practitioners with a background on the current U.S. context as it relates to anti-trans policies, legislation, and rhetoric. Next, practitioners will develop clinical, macro, and multisystem skills for supporting transgender individuals and advocating at the community or state levels.

Whether you sit on a board of directors or work exclusively with individual clients, you create culture, policy, and impact through your work every day. Regardless of role, all social impact professionals are leaders. Yet many of us never receive any formal leadership training, and those who do often receive little guidance for translating business-oriented leadership approaches to the unique contexts of social impact work. Further, some of the most familiar concepts from leadership practice are not inclusive of all identities.

In this continuing education course, you will be asked to think critically about commonly accepted leadership “norms.” This course will also help you recognize cultural contexts that impact how a social impact organization sets priorities, manages resources, and shows up on behalf of its communities. Finally, recognizing that you, as a leader, have influence even without power, this course will challenge you to articulate your own framework for making decisions that further the goal of social justice.

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental illness affecting roughly 26 million people, equating to 1% of the global population. Psychosis is experienced within schizophrenia spectrum or other psychotic disorders in addition to several other disorders, often framed as being 'psychotic features.' Since the majority of mental health services in the US are delivered by social workers, it is important for clinicians to be prepared for work with clients including the need for interventions tailored to the experience of psychosis. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for psychosis is a cognitive and behavioral approach tailored for individuals experiencing psychosis and is an effective and valuable evidence-based intervention to use in practice.

This webinar will discuss an overview of psychosis and its prevalence, a brief overview of CBT theory and basics, a central focus on intervention using CBT for psychosis, and the use of 2 clinical cases.

Course created 8/26/2020

Depression is a leading cause of disability in the United States and worldwide. It is estimated that one in five individuals will experience depression in their lifetime, and while these symptoms are common, under-treatment is often seen in practice. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a valuable evidence-based intervention and effective approach to use in practice for individuals experiencing depressive disorders. This workshop will discuss depressive disorders, CBT theory, and use of CBT to treat depressive disorders.

Course created 8/27/2020