Program Summary:  This course explores ethical implications and challenges related to private equity investment in the field of social services.  The course offers an overview of private equity in social services and uses the NASW Code of Ethics as a guide to address potential concerns.  Ethical standards related to informed consent, conflicts of interest, professional integrity, administration and commitments to employers, dishonesty, fraud, and deception, and social injustice, anti-racism, and social and political action are highlighted.  Examples are given.

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.
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Program Summary:  This course examines key ethical considerations related to the use of mental health chatbots and highlights a 5-principle ethical framework that includes the principles of non-maleficence, beneficence, respect for autonomy, justice, and explicability.  The course applies this five-principle framework to issues of human involvement, evidence base, data collection, storage and use, and unexpected disclosure of crimes.   Four ethical recommendations are offered to guide the design and use of mental health chatbots.

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.
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Program Summary:  The reading for this course asks important legal and ethical questions related to the emergence of AI in healthcare.  For example, should the final decisions in medical matters depend on human judgment alone? What does informed consent look like when treatment includes opaque, unintelligible AI algorithms? How can a patient challenge a decision if the health professional cannot clearly explain how or why they proposed a certain treatment? What probability of error is acceptable in AI models?  Who should be held responsible for AI errors?  This course examines the main ethical and legal considerations for AI development in healthcare and highlights ethical principles of privacy, confidentiality, autonomy, informed consent, beneficence, and nonmaleficence.  Issues of bias, responsibility, liability, and the transformation of work are also discussed.  This course identifies a need for healthcare workers to expand their AI competence with a special emphasis placed on ethical and legal considerations.

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.
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Program Summary:  This course explores the benefits and ethical implications of generative AI’s growing presence in mental healthcare.  Using a framework of biomedical ethics, the ethical principles of patient autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, and privacy are each highlighted.  The course examines generative AI tools and offers questions for future research. The course includes an explainer of artificial intelligence tools and resources.

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.
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Program Summary:  This course explores the history of artificial intelligence, the use of algorithms, and the influence of algorithms on areas of healthcare, housing, employment, and criminal justice.  The course highlights concerns related to the implementation of AI that include injustices to marginalized groups.  The course outlines four ways for social workers to advocate for digital inclusion and social justice:  resist, regulate, reimagine, and reinforce.  Examples are given.

“According to the NASW Code of Ethics, social workers must challenge social injustice and address social problems (NASW, 2021).”

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.
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Program Summary:  This course explores social work boundary issues and ethical conflicts that result from a growing use of technology and remote contact with clients.  The course examines three forms of boundary challenges encountered by social workers in the digital age:  ethical judgments, ethical mistakes, and ethical misconduct.  Case examples are given.  Boundary issues related to intimacy, emotional and dependency needs, personal gain, altruism, and unanticipated circumstances are identified.  The NASW Code of Ethics and the NASW Standards for Technology in Social Work Practice are discussed and offer updated ethics and technology standards for social workers.

“With growth in the use of communication technology in various aspects of social work practice, social workers need to be aware of the unique challenges that may arise in relation to the maintenance of confidentiality, informed consent, professional boundaries, professional competence, record keeping, and other ethical considerations” (NASW Code of Ethics).

NASW Code of Ethics:  https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English

NASW Standards for Technology in Social Work Practice:  https://www.socialworkers.org/Practice/NASW-Practice-Standards-Guidelines/Standards-for-Technology-in-Social-Work-Practice

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.
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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.
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Program Summary:  This course examines the social work profession’s commitment to social justice with a research study of 310 MSW students, exploring which individual factors were most associated with activism and engagement.  The concept of intersectionality is highlighted and provides a framework for understanding how individuals hold multiple, overlapping identities that result in various combinations of discrimination, oppression, and privilege.  The course finds that an increased understanding of privilege, power, and the intersecting systems of oppression is required in our efforts to elevate 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.
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Program Summary:  This course uses communication theory to explore the benefits and challenges of communication technology on the social worker-client relationship. The course examines the importance of resolving ethical issues related to ICT use, digital literacy, and social work practice.  The following ethical issues are highlighted: boundaries, client well-being, professional competence, privacy, confidentiality, cultural competence, and social justice.  Key factors for selecting communication tools are given.

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.

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Program Summary:  This course explores the systemic problems that contribute to stress, trauma, and burnout in the social work profession, while examining the recent addition of self-care as an ethical mandate to the revised 2021 NASW Code of Ethics. The course highlights mezzo and macro factors affecting the profession that include workforce and employment conditions such as stressful working conditions, low pay, inadequate support, heavy workloads, and poor staffing. Instead of viewing self-care as a personal responsibility of social workers, the course reframes self-care as a social justice issue.

Professional self-care is paramount for competent and ethical social work practice. Professional demands, challenging workplace climates, and exposure to trauma warrant that social workers maintain personal and professional health, safety, and integrity. Social work organizations, agencies, and educational institutions are encouraged to promote organizational policies, practices, and materials to support social workers’ self-care.  (NASW Code of Ethics, 2021)

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.

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Program Summary:  This course explores social work’s foundation as a human rights profession and describes early efforts to advocate for a wide range of social, economic, and environmental reforms.  The course highlights social work’s essential role as an advocate for social justice but also acknowledges the evolution of the profession toward professionalization and clinical practice.  The course examines the limitations of the micro/macro divide and advocates for the promotion of rights-based approaches in all areas of social work practice.

NASW Code of Ethics 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.

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.

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Please note:  This is an ethics course and is not intended to meet your mandatory reporting coursework requirements.

Program Summary:  This course offers an analysis of mandated reporting of child abuse in the US using excerpts from social work textbooks.  The course provides a critique of an oversimplified, ‘better safe than sorry’ understanding of mandated reporting and seeks a more nuanced and careful analysis.  Mandated reporting is viewed in the context of deontological ethics, a rules-based ethics, prioritizing rules over consequences, context, and outcomes. The case for mandated reporting as an ethical dilemma for social workers is presented, and the NASW Ethical Standard 1.01 Commitment to Clients is highlighted.

Ethical Standard 1.01 Commitment to Clients

Social workers’ primary responsibility is to promote the well-being of clients. In general, clients’ interests are primary. However, social workers; responsibility to the larger society or specific legal obligations may, on limited occasions, supersede the loyalty owed clients, and clients should be so advised. (Examples include when a social worker is required by law to report that a client has abused a child or has threatened to harm self or others.

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.

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Program Summary:   This course examines choice scenarios for the allocation of scarce resources during the Covid-19 pandemic and explores the potential for disability bias.  The research is part of an Epidemic Ethics/WHO initiative.  The course follows a conjoint study in which respondents are given a choice for selecting which one of two patients would receive a hospital’s last ventilator.  Guidance from the HHS Office for Civil Rights issued in March of 2020 is included.

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.
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Program Summary:   This course explores key stages of the evolution of social work ethics from the morality period to the digital period.  Practical tools for managing ethics challenges in social work organizations are provided; strategies include informal ethics conversations, formal ethics consultations, agency-based ethics committees, and ethics rounds.  Case examples are given.

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.
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Program Summary:  This updated course explores the mistreatment of African American, Latinx, and Asian American and Pacific Islander elders.  Research briefs examine how different cultures perceive elder mistreatment and how they seek help.  Cultural beliefs, views, and norms are highlighted, along with research findings.  The course identifies, risk factors, protective factors, and proposed interventions.

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.

Participants who complete this course will receive 2 continuing education clock hours. 1 of these clock hours is Ethics and 1 of these clock hours is Social and Cultural Competence.

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Program Summary:  This course explores the impact of ICT use on clinical practice during the Covid-19 pandemic and its affect on social work core values, including client well-being, confidentiality, privacy, boundaries, and advocacy.  The ICT expansion importantly allowed social workers to continue their therapeutic relationships with clients when it would not have been possible otherwise.  Many clients responded well to the increased flexibility and creativity offered by ICT.  Other clients experienced critical barriers, such as lack of internet access and poor internet literacy.  Ethical dilemmas were experienced and examples are given.

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.

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Participants who complete this course will receive 2 continuing education clock hours. 1 of these clock hours is Ethics and 1 of these clock hours is Social and Cultural Competence.

Program Summary:   This course highlights the political action and leadership of early African American social workers and their work challenging discrimination and injustice while advocating for systemic change.  Authors Donisha Shepherd and Suzanne Pritzer offer a social work history that moves beyond Jane Addams’ Hull House and includes the important and sometimes overlooked contributions of social workers like Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Victoria Earle Matthews, Thyra Edwards, Lester Blackwell Granger, and more.  The course uses Lane and Pritzker’s five domains of political social work practice as a framework for understanding the different domains of political advocacy.  The course also includes the NASW 2021 Blueprint of Federal and Social Policy Priorities, which outlines current policy priorities and solutions for national leaders.  Priorities such as high quality healthcare for all, ending homelessness, eliminating racism, reforming immigration policy, and advancing political justice are given.

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.

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Program Summary:   This course explores the legal process of guardianship and the ethical principles of advocacy, autonomy, self-determination, decision-making, and non-malfeasance.  While guardianship serves an important role in protecting individuals from harm, it also limits fundamental rights as decision-making is transferred from the individual to the guardian.  For this reason, the appointment of a guardian should always be a last resort and only if a less restrictive option is not achievable.  The course highlights the role of the guardian as advocate, promoting the individual’s rights, wishes, and well-being.  The course also examines how the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in changes to practice, some of which will likely continue as we move forward in a post-pandemic world. NGA Guardianship Standards of Practice and Ethical Principles are featured.

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.

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Program Summary:  This course offers an ethical analysis of the mitigation measures, restrictions, and social isolation of long term care residents during the Covid-19 pandemic.  The course explores concepts of harm, proportionality, reciprocity, and transparency.  Ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, maleficence, and justice are examined.  The reading also includes surveys of long term care family members measuring the impact of restrictions on their relatives’ physical and mental conditions.

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.

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Program Summary: This course explores the ethical challenges experienced by social workers during the Covid-19 pandemic and offers a framework for understanding ethics during a time of crisis. Four broad responses to ethical challenges were identified and include ethical confusion, ethical distress, ethical creativity, and ethical learning. The course highlights the efforts of social workers to practice ethically during this time of change and introduces concepts of ethical agency, slow ethics, and professional judgement.

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.

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Program summary: The NASW Code of Ethics, updated in 2021, sets forth basic values, ethical principles, and ethical standards to be used as a guide for social workers’ conduct and practice.

This course is recommended for social workers and is appropriate for beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels of practice.  This course does not meet continuing education requirements for National Certified Counselors.

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