Telehealth: Legal and Ethical Considerations and Best Practices in Supporting System Involved Youth

Rachel Michaelsen

Training Description

As social services case planning, mental health treatment, and general support has become more commonly provided via telehealth, it is important that those who support system involved youth are aware of the legal and ethical issues related to services and support provided via telehealth. In this class participants will learn: 1)  California Telehealth legal codes and Telehealth professional codes of ethics including: informed consent, privacy, working with people out of state, preparing for crisis, and handling technology failure; 2) Research on Telemental Health and 3) best practices when providing online support for system involved youth.

Learning Objectives

· Participants will be able to explain how and when to obtain informed consent for telehealth services and support when working with system involved youth.

· Participants will be able to identify two pros and two cons of providing telehealth services and support to system involved youth and their families.

· Participants will be able to explain at least two ways to maintain confidentiality when providing telehealth support to system involved youth.

Agenda

9:30 – 9:45am  Introduction and Logistics

9:45 – 10:00am  Telehealth and Telemental health Definitions

10:00 – 10:15am  California codes related to Telehealth

10:15 – 10:30am  California professional codes related to Telehealth

10:30 – 10:45am  Telehealth informed consent

10:45 – 11:00am  Telehealth privacy issues

11:00 – 11:15am  BREAK (CE hours will not be offered  for this time)

11:15 – 11:30am  Telemental Health Crisis Management

11:30 – 11:45am  Telehealth technological failure preparation

11:45am – 12:15pm  What does the research say about Telemental Health?

12:15 – 12:45pm  Telehealth Best Practices

Meet Our Trainer

Rachel Michaelsen, LCSW, is a clinical social worker who has worked in HMOs, public agencies, and private practice as both a mental-health provider and a supervisor for over thirty years. She has taught courses in DSM-5, clinical supervision, law and ethics, childhood psychopathology, time management, boundaries, vicarious traumatization and energy psychology at universities, conferences, and mental-health agencies. She has a private psychotherapy practice, which has been exclusively been online since 2020, and is also the Chair of the Humanitarian Committee for the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology.

This course meets the qualifications for (3.0) BBS CE hours for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.