Training Summary

A well-administered Disclosure Statement, also called Informed Consent, can be the single most important risk management tool you have at your disposal. This webinar is designed to help you maximize its use.

In this two-hour presentation, Frances Schopick, JD, MSW, will explain the basics of best practices for the Disclosure Statement: What does a Disclosure Statement need to include by law? Can you tailor it to your practice? Are there things you should avoid in a Disclosure? What about when the client is a child, family, or couple? Or if there’s DV or “high conflict”?

It is important that counselors be able to navigate the Disclosure process with confidence. Why? Because a well-administered Disclosure Statement can show that you met legal standards of your state and gave notice of your practices before therapy started. It can also clarify issues that may later be contested -- which can be decisive factors in your favor, should you later face a Board complaint.



Objectives:

1. Attendees will understand the purpose of the Disclosure Statement and Informed Consent.
2. Attendees will be able to explain why it is important to know who the client is.
3. Attendees will be able to name at least three things a Disclosure Statement should include.

Earn 2 Ethics CEUs from Washington State Society for Clinical Social Work!

About the Presenter:

Frances Schopick, JD, MSW is an attorney with an extensive background in clinical Social Work and psychiatric research. She served on the Psychiatry Faculties at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA to research the underlying contributors seen in people with mood, personality, and psychotic disorders. She worked clinically with perpetrators as well as survivors of domestic violence and coercive control. Her experience has given her insights into the dynamics of high conflict families as well as the complex and nuanced challenges posed to the counselors who work with them.

Now an attorney in WA State, Fran represents health care providers undergoing Board investigations. To help licensees avoid such complaints, Fran develops Disclosure and Informed Consent resources tailored to individual practice, so that providers can simultaneously minimize counselor risk and maximize client care. Fran provides legal consultation to agencies, counselors, and other healthcare providers working with individual adults, children, couples, and families, often in “high conflict” situations. Fran speaks nationally on the importance of well-administered Informed Consent as well as the many factors that can affect clinical care.