Ethical Principles for Mental Health Professionals Training

.        Training Agenda:

• Introductions, review of learning objectives (5 minutes)
• Discuss ethical principles; (55 minutes)
• Discuss burnout, compassion-fatigue; self-evaluation (30 minutes)
• Application of principles to behavioral health situations (30 min)
• Small-group: several activities (30 min)
• Discussion of telehealth ethical practices (20 min)
• Q & A and wrap-up (10 min)

2. Bio Statement

Dr. Andrew Nocita has been on the faculty of Waynesburg University’s Counseling program since 2007.  He was trained as a clinical psychologist at Miami University in Ohio, and received his Master’s degree in 1984, and his doctorate in 1987.  Early in his career, Dr. Nocita discovered a need to try to understand people with substance use disorders as well as mental disorders, and 30 years later he is still working on that understanding.  His therapeutic work includes couples, families, and individuals, from an integrative therapy approach based on humanistic principles.

3. Workshop Description:

This 3 hour workshop will provide an overview of the ethical principles for behavioral health professionals. Participants will learn to apply the ethical principles to service provision to clients, as well as to self-care practices for themselves. We will discuss ethical practices in telehealth practice as well. There will be time for hands-on discussion of cases and ethical dilemmas in participants’ own work.

4. Learning objectives

At the end of the workshop, participants will:

• Understand five foundational ethical principles, and what each one means in our work.
• Apply ethical principles to situations involving both client care and self-care of caregivers.
• Understand concepts of burnout and compassion fatigue and how they connect to ethics
• Assess your own state of satisfaction or compassion fatigue.
• Review ethical considerations associated with telehealth services from counselors
• Develop a list of self-care strategies that you can use right away.