Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II
In-person
Friday, April 5, 2024
9 am – 3:30 pm
5 CECs
Registration Fee: $125
UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors receive a 10% discount
Classroom location, directions and parking details will be included in your email confirmation
Although a large component of the daily work of social workers is to diagnose psychiatric illnesses, there is little education on how to do that well. There is a wealth of knowledge about each disorder, but there is a lack of training on what questions to ask a client in order to properly develop a thorough and accurate diagnosis. This seminar teaches how to differentially diagnose using specific questions and provides decision trees that clinicians can use in clinical sessions. Clinical diagnosis may seem safe from cultural, political, and social influence, but in fact, it is often guided by these forces. Whether a condition is considered a disorder is based in social and political context, and certainly, what questions we ask in the psychiatric interview is culturally influenced. If one were to examine diagnostic material across decades, the fluctuations in diagnostic material would be easy to detect and correlate with changes in cultural, social, and political climates. This seminar topic connects to diversity in allowing for individuality in diagnosis and attending to the diverse background of each client as a part of the diagnosis process.
The goal of this in-person seminar is to help the clinician improve the diagnostic skills they use in their daily practice. Decision trees given in the DSM are updated and expanded to better serve the clinician. Participants will receive handouts of decision trees to take with them.
Using lecture, discussion, and simulated clinical interviews, this seminar will enable you to:
• learn the art of diagnosis
• gather specific questions that will aid you in obtaining the most accurate diagnosis with each client
• practice the clinical interview, asking learned questions to aid in differential diagnosis
• obtain decision tree handouts of each disorder group to use in the clinical interview