This workshop teaches supervisors how to support staff in planning to meet the needs of clients with mental illnesses and substance use across the life course. Included are supervisory considerations for supporting social service workers in the ongoing assessment of mental disorder symptoms and their potential impacts on clients and their families, building understanding of effective practice models as supported by research evidence, appreciating the complex nature of self-determination, and the intersections of these issues with cultural diversity.

Learning Objectives (Supervisory Best Practices):

1. Encourage and partner with supervisees in reviewing symptoms of relevant mental
   disorders and their potential impacts on clients and their families
2. Support supervisees in the ongoing assessment of signs and symptoms of mental illness, substance use, and trauma among clients and their families
3. Guide and partner with supervisees to evaluate how our beliefs on mental illness and substance use influence our ethical practice
4. Assist supervisees in planning for how they can help to meet the needs of clients with mental illnesses or substance use (who often require more effort, time, advanced planning, and skill from their social service providers)
5. Work with colleagues and social service teams to identify effective models of service delivery for clients with mental illness or substance use that are supported by contemporary research literature and which fit with agency goals and structures
6. Support supervisees in addressing the complex nature of self-determination, accounting for legal status, age, and neurodiversity

This workshop helps supervisors to support social service staff in using evidence-informed approaches to common illness-related challenges that confront individuals and families across the life course. Included are supervisory considerations for supporting social service workers in helping clients with care transitions, acute health crises, management of chronic conditions, navigating health and long-term care systems, and the intersections of these issues with cultural diversity. Supervisors explore techniques for supporting teams in service planning, health education, and health advocacy.

Learning Objectives (Supervisory Best Practices):

1. Review with supervisees the common illness-related challenges that confront individuals and families across the life course (including care transitions, acute health crises, and navigating health and long-term care service systems)
2. Support supervisees in the ongoing assessment of client health and illness, especially for clients with heightened vulnerability due to late-life frailty, neurological disorders, and co-occurring chronic conditions
3. Assist supervisees in planning to meet the health needs of their clients through services, culturally-informed health education, and health advocacy

This workshop highlights challenges supervisors may face including supervisees’ performance problems, organizational challenges, and ethical dilemmas in practice. Supervisors will collaborate in exploring strategies for addressing these challenges and promoting worker self-care to strengthen worker wellness and retention. Participants will seek to integrate lessons learned throughout the program.

Learning Objectives (Supervisory Best Practices):

1. Communicate clearly and directly with supervisees about performance problems
2. Teach and partner with supervisees to recognize and respond to ethical dilemmas
3. Guide and partner with supervisees to identify practices which promote wellness
   among staff
4. Engage in my own supervision and ongoing professional development
5. Provide leadership within the organization to create a culture where supervision is
   sanctioned and necessary resources are allocated to assure staff learning
6. Assist supervisees in understanding their roles and the roles of other team
   members, administrators, and clients in achieving collective and individual goals

This workshop teaches new supervisors and updates those who are experienced about the range of skills involved in individual and group supervision in an array of service contexts. Supervisors are guided in structuring regularly scheduled supervisory sessions in accordance with the learning styles of supervisees and the appropriate use of individual versus group meetings. Emphasis is placed on supporting staff in self-assessment with careful attention to diversity, inclusion, and equity issues within the service context.

Learning Objectives (Supervisory Best Practices):

1. Structure regularly scheduled supervisory sessions in accordance with the learning styles of supervisees
2. Support supervisees in self-assessment and planning to advance their practice strengths, address challenges, and develop as professionals
3. Teach supervisees to use an “evidence-informed” approach to empirically evaluating practice
4. Model the behavior of striving for professional competence through ongoing education, supervision, and self-care
5. Structure group supervision sessions focused on common practice themes and situations (e.g., ethical dilemmas)
6. Utilize social work group facilitation skills to promote group process during group supervision

Laurel L. Shortell, MSW, LICSW
Wed, Jul 20, 2022
6:00 – 8:00 pm
2 CECs

$40  – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$50  – All Others

Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete

Individuals with Asperger / autism profiles live in a world that is designed for those who intuitively recognize non-verbal signals and who understand the nuances of social interaction. This can lead to unintended misunderstandings and challenges, even in therapeutic contexts dedicated to fostering well-being and mental health.

This webinar is intended to increase awareness of how neurodiverse adults and couples may experience and make sense of social interactions and how recognizing these perspectives can improve a clinician’s ability to understand and communicate effectively. Neurodiverse clients already navigate a world that is predominantly neurotypical. The therapeutic relationship should be a safe haven from such pressures and expectations, instead offering understanding and support.

By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Understand differences that neurodiverse individuals may encounter in a predominantly neurotypical world.
• Recognize behaviors and conversational styles that may have different meanings when working with clients on the autism spectrum.
• Identify approaches that can help neurodiverse clients feel more understood and supported in the therapeutic setting.

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II

Postponed

Classroom location, directions and parking details will be included in your email confirmation

Trainings on clinician burnout typically focus on balance and self-care, which may increase healthy habits, but often won’t alleviate burnout. This in-person workshop goes to the heart of the three most common causes of burnout, a lack of power, passion, and purpose, and how to build each one.

Learning objectives:

• explore and evaluate traditional clinical burnout prevention techniques
• examine the concept of power, what it is and how to build it in oneself and in the workplace
• investigate passion by remembering early passion for work and how to reignite it
• consider one’s purpose and how to increase its value to promote job satisfaction

William C. Gilbert, PhD, LCSW, AADC
Saturday, June 11, 2022
10 am – 12 pm
2 CECs

$40  – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$50  – All Others
Webinar link will be emailed when your registration is complete

Trauma affects many of the clients we serve and is the catalyst for many mental illnesses. Now, our country is faced with a new universal stressor: COVID-19. The pandemic has caused the loss of lives, businesses, and has changed the “normal” way of life for many. The trauma experienced because of COVID-19 has created problems on micro, mezzo, and macro levels.

The first hour of this webinar will explore our current understanding of trauma reactions including polyvagal theory and the work of Bessel van de Kolk. The second hour will apply the ideas discussed to the current trauma experienced as result of COVID-19.

By the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• describe the current theories on trauma reactions
• understand how these theories are applicable to the COVID-19 pandemic to micro, mezzo, and macro systems
• apply the information shared to your work with clients

Jennifer Berton, PhD, LICSW, CADC-II

Monday, March 14, 2022
10 am – 12 pm
2 CECs

$40 – UConn SSW Alumni and Current Field Instructors
$50 – All Others

When COVID initially arrived, clinicians jumped into crisis mode to help our clients manage the myriad issues that came with it. Two years later, the pandemic is still here and we are exhausted, frustrated and needing specific tools to help manage it all. This webinar will target the characteristics of COVID-specific Burnout and the needed tools to address it.