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• Pandemic Anxiety and Depression. A New Perspective. And Profound Pandemic Lessons

  • When
    Friday, October 07, 2022
  •  
    12:00 PM - 3:00 PM
  • Location
    Online ZOOM
  • Spaces left
    17

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  Presenter: Jeffrey I. Bryan, LCSW, BCD

  CEUs: Category 1 | 3.0 
  

  In some ways the situations we face during the pandemic is similar to other situations that trigger anxiety and depression. In some ways they are profoundly different. Anxiety especially and sometimes depression are about the future. Currently, our future is significantly different from our past and is unpredictable in many ways. A new perspective is to see the role our new future plays in triggering anxiety and depression. Being clear about this can helps us cope and ultimately thrive. In the context of the future an antidote to pandemic anxiety and depression is self-confidence. Let’s explore exactly what this is.

  The pandemic challenges us to learn some profound lessons, like “invisible things are real,” for example. There are other lessons. Let’s explore what they are, why they are profound, and how to help our clients as they struggle with these lessons.

  Workshop Objectives:

  Participants will be able to:
  

  1. Identify the similarities and differences between currently recognized and pandemic triggered anxiety and depression
  2. Use this new understanding to help patients with their anxiety and depression
  3. Describe the “lessons” that we can learn as a result of our experience with the pandemic
  4. Help patients identify and learn pandemic lessons as appropriate in a therapy session

  Agenda:

  Introduction, Pandemic Anxiety
  Pandemic Depression
  Break
  Pandemic Depression
  Pandemic Lessons
  

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• Depressed, Borderline, or Bipolar?

  • When
    Saturday, October 08, 2022
  •  
    10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
  • Location
    Online ZOOM
  • Spaces left
    0

  Join waitlist

  Presenter: Brian Quinn, Ph.D., LCSW 
  brianquinnphd.com

  CEUs: Category 1 | 3.0 

  Clinicians are seeing an increasing number of adolescents and young adults who, in spite of treatment with multiple antidepressants and a variety of other medications, remain mired in depression, often accompanied by irritability, anxiety, and distractibility. These individuals often lament that they “have tried every drug there is” without substantial or sustained benefit.

  One reason for their predicament is that many of them are not simply depressed. At least 40 percent of them actually have unrecognized bipolar illness. Antidepressants have been shown to be only marginally better than placebo in acute bipolar depression and have been proven ineffective in preventing future depressive episodes in those with bipolar illness. In a subset of bipolar patients, antidepressants can cause or worsen irritable, agitated depression, increase the risk of suicide, and, paradoxically, lead to more frequent depressive episodes. Effective psychotherapy often proves to be difficult, if not impossible, when bipolar patients are misdiagnosed and inappropriately treated with antidepressants.

  This seminar will provide clinicians with a four-part, clinical diagnostic method to distinguish patients with borderline personality and major depressive disorder from those with bipolar illness. Clinicians will learn about the medications that should form the foundation of treatment for bipolar illness, including the one medication that has been repeatedly shown to dramatically reduce the risk of completed suicide. They will also learn about potent, non-drug treatments for depression, mania, and rapid-cycling that they can put to immediate use in their practices.

  Workshop Objectives:

  Participants will learn:
  

  1. The four lines of clinical evidence that must be assessed to distinguish bipolar depression from unipolar depression and borderline personality
  2. A key issue to address in the psychotherapy of bipolar illness: Denial of the illness
  3. The research showing why antidepressants are the wrong treatment for bipolar depression
  4. The one drug repeatedly shown to dramatically reduce the risk of suicide
  5. Why atypical antipsychotics should not be used in place of lithium and other drugs proven to prevent new episodes of depression and mania

  Agenda:

  Depression: Unipolar or bipolar? (and why it matters)

  • Case study, with video: A TV reporter with undiagnosed bipolar illness
  • Why and how you should check for a history of hypomania
  • Common, but often overlooked: mixed depressive states
  • Beyond symptoms: Why an evaluation of family history, course of illness,
  • and response to antidepressants is critical to diagnosis and treatment
  • A presidential candidate's family history and a teen on Zoloft who
  • committed suicide: What their stories tell us about diagnosis

  Differential Diagnosis: Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality

  • Similarity/differences in symptoms
  • Course markers that help distinguish bipolar illness from borderline
  • Family history markers
  • Helping patients accept the bipolar diagnosis and the need for medication

  Medications

  • Antidepressants and bipolar depression
  • Lithium: Still important - and still the best for many patients
  • Lamictal: Not all it's cracked up to be
  • Why atypical antipsychotics are not mood stabilizers

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• Simple Exercises That Reduce Anxiety and Enhance Connection

  • When
    Friday, October 14, 2022
  •  
    11:00 AM - 2:30 PM
  • Location
    Online ZOOM
  • Spaces left
    11

  Register

  Presenter: Robert S. Seiler, Jr., LCSW-C

  CEUs: Category 1 | 3.0 (Participants take part in the break-out sessions in order to receive the CEUs)

  This presentation will present simple, powerful exercises that therapists and clients can use to reduce anxiety and enhance connection. The exercises were developed by Stanley Rosenberg, an American Cranial-Sacral Therapist based in Denmark, and are based on the Polyvagal Theory of Stephen Porges. The exercises activate the vagus nerve, thereby lowering heart rate, reducing muscle tension, and fostering feelings of safety and calm. They also activate other cranial nerves used in nonverbal communication, thereby making it easier for us to connect with and feel safe with others. Participants will learn the exercises and their effects, will practice demonstrating and teaching them, and will learn ways to use them in therapy. The material is suitable for clinicians of all levels of experience.

  Workshop Objectives:

  Participants will:
  

  1. Describe the Polyvagal Theory of the autonomic nervous system
  2. Describe the social engagement system (the five cranial nerves involved in interpersonal connection)
  3. Demonstrate and teach three of Stanley Rosenberg’s exercises
  4. Describe how the exercises activate the social engagement system
  5. Describe the short-term experiential effects of the exercises
  6. Describe the experiential effects of regular practice of the exercises
  7. Use the exercises in clinical work

  Agenda:

  • Introduction
  • The Polyvagal Theory
  • The Social Engagement System
  • The Rosenberg Exercises
  • Demonstrating and Teaching the Exercises
  • Experiential Effects of the Exercises
  • Clinical uses of the Exercise
  • Discussion/Closing
    
    There will be a 30 minute break during this workshop.

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• Complex Ethical Challenges in Clinical Social Work: How to Protect Clients and Ourselves with Dr. Frederic G. Reamer

  • When
    Friday, October 28, 2022
  •  
    9:30 AM - 3:00 PM
  • Location
    Online ZOOM

  Register

  Presenter: Frederic G. Reamer, Ph.D.

  CEUs: 5.0 (ETHICS CREDIT)

  This webinar will provide participants with an in-depth examination of compelling ethical challenges in clinical social work.  Moving beyond introductory ethics concepts, Dr. Frederic Reamer will explore difficult ethics cases and practical strategies designed to protect clients and practitioners.  The webinar will include a series of challenging ethics cases involving conflicting professional duties and discuss practical steps that social workers can take to manage ethical issues skillfully.  Key topics will include boundary issues, dual relationships, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, privileged communication, informed consent, clients’ rights, termination of services, and clinicians’ use of technology.  The webinar will include discussion of relevant ethical standards; statutes, regulations, and case law; supervision; consultation; and documentation decisions.   

  Workshop Objectives:

  At the conclusion of this webinar participants will be able to:

  1. Identify challenging ethical issues and dilemmas in clinical social work
  2. Apply practical ethical decision-making frameworks and protocols
  3. Identify ethical issues that pose malpractice and liability risks
  4. Design strategies to protect clients and prevent litigation and licensing board complaints

  ---

  About the Presenter:

  Dr. Frederic Reamer has dedicated his career to reforming the ethics, practice, and education of the social work field through his work as a researcher, an author, and a professor. His extensive experience in ethics research has helped NASW and the social work profession as a whole over the years. Reamer is a professor in the graduate program at the Rhode Island College School of Social Work, where he has taught since 1983. Over the years, his research has focused on a variety of human service issues, ranging from mental health and criminal justice to public welfare and professional ethics. Reamer has been a featured essayist on NPR’s Morning Edition, a commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered, and a guest on a variety of radio broadcasts on stations across the country. Starting in 2007, Reamer began as the host and producer of This I Believe – Rhode Island on NPR and Rhode Island Public Radio. He was featured as a commentator in the documentaries “America’s Serial Killers: Portraits of Evil” and “Rampage: Killing without Reason”. Reamer has appeared as an expert on the PBS series This Emotional Life. He has distinguished himself as an expert in the ethical use of technology within social work, and gave the keynote presentation “Managing Social Media and Electronic Communication in Social Work Practice: Ethical and Risk-management Issues” at the 2012 Association of Social Work Boards’ Education Conference, which introduced social work regulators to the ethical, practice and regulatory challenges posed by the quick rise of technology.  

  Career Highlights:
  

  Dr. Reamer has previously worked as the Director of the National Juvenile Justice Assessment Center at the US Department of Justice in the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention from 1979 to 1981, as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Governor of Rhode Island from 1987 to 1990, and as a Commissioner of the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation from 1987 to 1995. He served on the Rhode Island Parole Board from 1992 to 2016. Reamer was the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Social Work Education from 1990 to 1994, Associate Editor of the NASW Encyclopedia of Social Work (20th Edition) and is currently an Associate Editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Work Online. He has lectured around the world on professional ethics, professional malpractice, and liability, including presenting at the 2014 NASW National Conference. Reamer has participated in research projects sponsored by many groups including The Hastings Center, the Carnegie Corporation, the Haas Foundation, and the Scattergood Program for the Applied Ethics of Behavioral Healthcare at the Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania. 

  Biographic Data: 

  Dr. Reamer received his BA in Criminology from the University of Maryland in 1974, his Masters in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago in 1975, and his PhD in Social Work from the University of Chicago in 1978.

  Significant Achievements & Awards Received:
  

  Dr. Reamer received the "Distinguished Contributions to Social Work Education" award from the Council on Social Work Education (1995); Presidential Award from the National Association of Social Workers (1997); Richard Lodge Prize from Adelphi University for “outstanding contributions to the development of social work theory” (2005); Edith Abbott Award from the University of Chicago for “distinguished service to society and outstanding contributions at the local, national or international levels” (2005); Neil J. Houston, Jr. Memorial Award for “dedicated service and citizen contribution toward the criminal justice profession and the public interest” (2009); International Rhoda G. Sarnat Award from the National Association of Social Workers for significantly advancing "the public image of social work" (2012), and the Excellence in Ethics Award from the National Association of Social Workers (2015).  
  

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• Fall 2022 New Member Happy Hour

  • When
    Friday, October 28, 2022
  •  
    4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
  • Location
    Barcelona Wine Bar 1622 14th Street NW Washington, DC 20009
  • Spaces left
    25

  The Membership committee invites you to join clinicians of all levels for our upcoming social. Come mingle with fellow social workers; make connections, make friendships! Stay for as little or as long as you'd like.

  Who: Any GWSCSW members who joined in the past year are warmly invited to join us. MSW students that are not current members, and interested in learning about GWSCSW are encouraged to attend. And all current members are invited to come meet new members! 

  What:  A chance to learn more about what GWSCSW can provide you, how you can get involved, network, plus a chance for us all to get to know each other better! Bring your business cards!

  
  

  
  

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• Menopause: Toward Wellness and Transformation

  • When
    Saturday, October 29, 2022
  •  
    10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
  • Location
    Online ZOOM
  • Spaces left
    15

  Register

  Presenter: Lisa Sherper, LCSW-C and Sex Therapist https://www.lisasherper.com/about-me

  This is a 2-part workshop - October 29 & November 5, 2022 | 10:00 am - 1:00 pm -- attendees must participate in both sessions to receive CEUs

  Category 1 CEUs: 6.0

  This workshop will provide essential, up to date information on treatments for menopause and perimenopause to clinical social workers and prepare you to create your own menopause group for your client base. The first half of the workshop will focus on the medical aspects of menopause and the second half on the psycho-social and sexual aspects of menopause. It is an interactive workshop and a copy of the PowerPoint used for the workshop will be provided to everyone who attends for use in future groups.

  Workshop Objectives:

  Objectives for Part I

  1. Recognize Symptoms of Menopause and Perimenopause
  2. Discern Between the Systemic and Genitourinary Syndrome (GSM) symptoms of menopause
  3. Be familiar with the impact of the Women’s Health Initiative study on menopause treatment
  4. Be prepared to help clients self-advocate with health care providers

  Objectives for Part II

  1. Describe the Stress Cycle
  2. Teach stress management and emotion regulation skills
  3. Empower clients to openly express menopause experiences including feeling silenced about symptoms, experiencing invisibility, impediments to treatment, and open a dialogue about menopause as an ending and a beginning
  4. Identify qualities needed for enjoyable sexual life
  5. Begin a needs assessment for your menopause group

  Show details
• Whats Age Got to Do With It? Shortages of Medicare Mental Health Providers

  • When
    Friday, November 04, 2022
  •  
    1:00 PM - 4:15 PM
  • Location
    Online ZOOM
  • Spaces left
    18

  Register

  Presenter: Franca S. Posner MSW, LCSW-C

  CEUs: Category 1 | 3.0 
  

  This workshop is designed to identify the current and worsening crisis in lack of access to mental health care for current and future Medicare recipients. The underlying causes of this barrier to mental health care for older Americans and those with certain disabilities will be explored. The benefits and challenges of becoming a Medicare provider will be explored in a candid and straightforward manner. An opportunity for concrete questions and answers will be provided by a panel of clinicians at the end of this continuing education workshop.

  Workshop Objectives:

  At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Identify exactly who is qualified to be a Medicare recipient, and what services are provided through traditional Medicare as well as Medicare advantage programs.
  2. Describe the current mental health crisis related to a lack of practitioners to meet the needs of the aging and disabled community.
  3. Articulate the impact of the demographic shift in the United States as members of the “Baby Boom“ generation continue to become Medicare recipients in the next 10 years.
  4. Identify personal and professional implicit and explicit biases related to working with older adults and the disabled.
  5. Describe of the pros and cons of being a Medicare provider, including the clinical opportunities, The practice growth opportunities, and a realistic understanding of what mental health services Medicare covers.

  Specific Agenda:

  Welcome, Network

  Introduction to topic, history, demographics, practice gaps.

  Break, Re-caffeinate, Network

  The pros and cons of being a Medicare provider, Opting in and opting out of Medicare, reimbursement rates, the importance of secondary insurance, and the mechanics of billing Medicare.

  Panel discussion: Medicare provider members of GWSCSW. An opportunity to ask questions and get answers about the nitty-gritty of being a Medicare provider

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• 2022 Legislation & Advocacy Luncheon | Adjustment, Coping and Adaptation: Transitioning to our New Reality

  • When
    Sunday, November 06, 2022
  •  
    10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
  • Location
    Online ZOOM
  • Spaces left
    44

  Register

  2022 LEGISLATION & ADVOCACY (VIRTUAL) LUNCHEON

  Please join us for our 2022 Legislation
  and Advocacy Luncheon-Virtual Event!
  Sunday, November 6, 2022
  

  FREE CATEGORY 1 | 2 CEUs FOR MEMBERS (and VA State Society Members)  If you are not a member JOIN TODAY to join us (Non-member price for this event is $60)

  Registration is a free benefit to our members, but you must register to attend. TWO (2) CATEGORY 1 CEUs (FREE TO MEMBERS). We look forward to seeing you there!

  The GWSCSW will host our 8th Annual FREE Legislation and Advocacy Luncheon (virtual) on Sunday, November 6,  10 am-12 noon. “Legislation and Advocacy in Turbulent Times” will feature our lobbyists, Pam Kasemeyer  with Christine Krone (MD) and Sue Rowland (VA), as well as all of our committee chairs. Laura Groshong, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice will also join us to give a national view. How have changes in the delivery system for services (telehealth creating businesses like CareDash and Better Help; CareFirst pushing for sign-up with their new management system) impacted our patients and our practices? What have we needed to do differently? What needs to stay the same? What still needs to be advocated for?  Come learn-and help educate us about what’s on your mind!

  Registration is a free benefit to our members, but you must register to attend. TWO (2) CATEGORY 1 CEUs (FREE TO MEMBERS). We look forward to seeing you there! Our Society needs YOU to help us advocate and impact legislators in many different ways, or our messages simply will not get out. 

  
  

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