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Continuing Education Courses About Children

At Free State Social Work, we provide great online continuing education about children for social workers, counselors, and therapists!

All of our courses are $5.99 per credit hour. We also offer an unlimited package! One year of unlimited courses is $74.99 and two years are $124.99.

Click here for more details about our unlimited packages.

Click here for more information about how to get started.


Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention for LGBTQIA2S+ Youth (2 credit hours)

Program Summary:  This course offers guidance and positive strategies for mental health promotion and suicide prevention for LGBTQIA2S+ youth.  The course highlights affirming environments, professional competence, culturally competent care, risk and protective factors, and sources of joy.  Tips and advice from LGBTQIA2S+ youth and adults are shared, and the importance of involving LGBTQIA2S+ youth in the development of programs is emphasized.  The course includes the HRC Glossary of Terms for help with terminology.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.  

Unfortunately, this course is not available in CE Broker for Florida professionals.
Read the complete description of this course…..


Child Maltreatment and Brain Development: A Primer for Child Welfare Professionals (1 credit hour)

Program Summary:  This course highlights current research on the impact of child maltreatment on a child’s developing brain.  The course offers an overview of brain development and explores concepts of ‘serve and return’, attachment, sensitive periods, plasticity, and stress responses.  The course describes the effects of maltreatment on behavioral, social, and emotional functioning and the impact of resilience.  Implications for practice are discussed.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.  
Read the complete description of this course…..


Child Welfare and Social Work Education: From a Pedagogy of Oppression to a Pedagogy of Resistance (1 credit hour)

Program Summary:  This thought-provoking course explores the relationship between social work and the child welfare system and critiques the federal Title IV-E training program and the ethical conflicts involved in training MSW students to regulate families.  The course examines the forces of racism, classism, misogyny, and injustice within the child welfare system.  The course suggests that the relationship between child welfare and social work must be reimagined and recreated in a new way that will allow social workers to meet the needs of children and families while also upholding the ethical principle of social justice.

Social justice is a core value of the social work profession, and the NASW Code of Ethics establishes the ethical principle to challenge social injustice.

Value: Social Justice
Ethical Principle:
Social workers challenge social injustice.  Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people.  Social workers’ social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice.  These activities seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic diversity.  Social workers strive to ensure access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision making for all people.  
NASW Code of Ethics

This course is recommended for social workers and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.  This course is not recommended for NBCC ethics credit.
Read the complete description of this course…..


Human Trafficking and Child Welfare: A Guide for Caseworkers (1 credit hour)

Program Summary:  This course explores how caseworkers can best identify and support victims of child trafficking.  The course discusses the scope of human trafficking, the intersection of human trafficking and child welfare, risk factors, and the needs of those who experience trafficking.  The course recommends a multifaceted, collaborative approach to the identification, prevention, and treatment of human trafficking in children.

This course is recommended for social workers, counselors, and therapists and it is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice Read the complete description of this course…..


Language Bias in Child Welfare (1 credit hour)

Program Summary:  This course explores the potential harms of biased language in child welfare practice and offers strategies for reducing implicit or unconscious bias and improving practice.  The course examines key concepts to understanding language bias in child welfare, including neutral language, labels, the concrete-to abstract continuum, and sociolinguistic inequality.  Examples of non-stigmatizing and preferred terms are offered.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.  

Read the complete description of this course…..


High-Achieving Asian American Adolescents and Suicide: The Need for Culturally Sensitive Suicide Intervention Approaches in Schools, A Case Study (1 credit hour)

Program Summary:  This course examines suicide risk and cultural variation among high-achieving Asian Americans.  The course explores cultural and family factors and offers examples of acculturation, acculturative stress, stereotype, obligatory stress, and cultural humility.  A case example of a high-achieving Asian American adolescent in a large high school is presented. Recommendations for clinical interventions are provided.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.  

Read the complete description of this course…..


Moving Beyond Change Efforts: Evidence and Action to Support and Affirm LGBTQI+ Youth (3 credit hours)

Program Summary:   This course explores current research and evidence-based practices for supporting and affirming LGBTQI+ youth.  The course describes behavioral health concerns and stressors for gender diverse youth and offers client-centered approaches for youth and their families.  The course highlights the importance of ensuring access to gender-supportive and gender-affirming care while emphasizing the harms of SOGI change efforts.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.
Unfortunately, this course is no longer available in CE Broker for Florida professionals.

Read the complete description of this course…..


Child Welfare Practice to Address Racial Disproportionality and Disparity (2 credit hours)

Program Summary:   This course explores the problem of racial disproportionality and disparity in child welfare.  The course describes the multiple factors that contribute to racial disproportionality and disparity, including disproportionate and disparate needs of children of diverse backgrounds, individual discrimination and racial bias, child welfare system factors, geography, policy, and structural racism.  Multiple strategies are given to address racial disproportionality and disparity in the child welfare system.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.  

Read the complete description of this course…..


Prescription Stimulant Misuse and Prevention Among Youth and Young Adults (1 credit hour)

Program Summary:   This course examines the prevalence of prescription stimulant use and misuse among youth and young adults.  Short and long term health effects of prescription stimulant use are explored along with risk and protective factors.  Opportunities for prevention are discussed, and considerations for screening, assessment, and treatment are given.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.   Read the complete description of this course…..


How To Talk To Youth About Human Trafficking (1 credit hour)

Program Summary:   This course offers a guide for how to recognize human trafficking, how to talk to youth about exploitation, and how to build protective factors to help prevent youth from human trafficking situations.  The course describes common myths and misconceptions about human trafficking and identifies physical, behavioral, and social signs of human trafficking.  Examples of human trafficking are provided and include tactics that traffickers might use to exploit victims.  Risk and protective factors are discussed.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.   Read the complete description of this course…..


Working with LGBTQ+ Families in Foster Care and Adoption (1 credit hour)

Program Summary:   This course examines supportive practices for working with LGBTQ+ families in foster care and adoption and offers guidance for building trusting and successful relationships. The course describes the advantages and challenges of engaging, recruiting, and helping LGBTQ+  families and aims to strengthen cultural competence for child welfare professionals.  Suggestions for creating a welcoming and affirming agency are given.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.   Read the complete description of this course…..


Treatment Considerations for Youth and Young Adults with Serious Emotional Disturbances, Serious Mental Illnesses and Co-occurring Substance Use (2 credit hours)

Program Summary:   This course explores treatment considerations for youth with SED and young adults with SMI and co-occurring substance use.  It offers an overview of risk and protective factors, impact of the problem, and barriers to treatment.  The course examines three treatment practices:  cognitive behavioral therapy, multidimensional family therapy, and pharmacotherapy.  Five program examples are given.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.   Read the complete description of this course…..


Preventing Marijuana Use Among Youth (2 credit hours)

Program Summary:   This course explores youth marijuana prevention and provides an overview of marijuana, its potency, methods of use, changes in use, and prevalence.  The course offers a discussion of short- and long-term adverse effects and harms.  Risk and protective factors are examined along with challenges to prevention efforts.  Promising substance use prevention programs and interventions are given.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.  

Read the complete description of this course…..


The Importance of a Trauma-Informed Child Welfare System (1 credit hour)

Course Summary:  Building a trauma-informed practice requires ongoing training and support with a shift in the conversation from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”  This course explores how trauma-informed child welfare improves children’s safety, permanency, and well-being.  The course examines trauma screening and assessment, workforce development, resource parent training, access to evidence- based treatment, and the role of protective factors.

This course is recommended for social workers and counselors and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.

Read the complete description of this course…..


Preparing Adoptive Families (2 credit hours)

Program Summary:  This course explores the importance of preparing and supporting parents, children, and youth for adoption.  It offers guidance and strategies for those who work with adoptive families and includes information on trauma, attachment, self care, financial considerations, and preplacement visits.  The course also explores the impact of adoption and 7 core issues including loss, rejection, shame, grief, identity, intimacy, and mastery and control.

This course is recommended for social workers, counselors, and therapists and it is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice.   Read the complete description of this course…..


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