The 2025 ABCSW Conference: Ethical Dilemmas in Clinical Social Work
A Virtual Conference Jointly Sponsored by The American Board of Clinical Social Work &
Washington University Brown School of Social Work
The American Board of Clinical Social Work and the Washington University Brown School of Social Work are excited to invite you to a new type of collaborative hybrid continuing education event. A small audience of Washington U’s Social Work Students and faculty, and all of our speakers will appear live on the campus of WashU, while the remainder of our attendees will be comfortably sitting at their own electronic devices in their offices or homes viewing the conference on a live stream. There will be opportunities for everyone to participate in the stimulating discussions about ethical dilemmas that are the focus of the event.
ABCSW Member: $200.00
Non-Member: $225.00
Student: $50.00
PRELIMINARY PROGRAM
(all listed times are Central Time)
FEATURED SPEAKERS
Allan Barsky, JD, MSW, PhD, opens our conference with a workshop entitled, “Ethical Dilemmas in Clinical Social Work: Managing Conflicting Obligations through Strategic Analysis and Conflict Resolution Techniques.” Dr. Barsky will offer participants a comprehensive and pragmatic framework for identifying and managing complex practice situations when their ethical, legal, and organizational obligations are in conflict. He will teach us how to apply four distinct approaches to ethical analysis: legalism, principle-based, consequentialist, and virtue ethics. Practice-based discussions will focus on critical issues such as managing situations that involve serious but non-imminent harm, navigating the use of artificial intelligence in clinical practice, responding to dual relationships and potential professional boundary issues, and considering alternatives to substitute decision-making for clients whose mental capacity is in question. Scenarios for discussion will present an array of clients, including children, older adults, military service members, and people with disabilities. Participants who attend Dr. Barsky’s presentation will leave with enhanced confidence in their ability to manage challenging ethical dilemmas by collaborating with their clients, family members, and co-professionals in a compassionate, prudent, and professional manner.
Dr. Barsky is a professor with Florida Atlantic University’s Sandler School of Social Work in Boca Raton. His book credits include Ethics and Values in Social Work, Clinicians in Court, Essential Ethics for Social Work Practice, Conflict Resolution for the Helping Professions, and Interprofessional Practice with Diverse Populations. Dr. Barsky chaired the National Association of Social Workers (USA) National Ethics Committee, as well as its Code of Ethics Review Committee which updated the code to reflect growing use of technology in practice. He was also awarded NASW’s “Excellence in Ethics Award.”
Cathleen M. Morey, PhD, LICSW, will speak on “Ethical Dilemmas in Clinical Social Work Supervision.” Clinical supervision plays a crucial role in developing and supporting social work practice, encompassing three primary functions: administrative, supportive, and educational. Dr. Morey will provide a conceptual framework and practical strategies for delivering ethically informed clinical social work supervision. She will begin by highlighting four supraordinate concepts that are essential to consider when applying an anti-oppressive approach to ethical social work supervision: aspirational ethics, the supremacy of Whiteness in social work ethics, intersectional ethics, and epistemic ethical (in)justice. She will then discuss the core responsibilities and components of ethical clinical social work supervision, including fostering a culture of ethical dialogue, attending to the dynamics of the supervisory relationship itself, facilitating ethical discernment, and applying an ethical decision-making framework grounded in anti-oppressive principles. Dr. Morey will also address what constitutes harmful supervision, helping participants recognize and avoid unethical supervisory behaviors. Participants will learn about direct and vicarious liability, as well as strategies to manage ethical and legal risks in their supervisory practices. Throughout the presentation, case vignettes illustrating problematic ethical issues will be used to highlight and apply the discussed concepts.
Dr. Morey is the Director of Clinical Social Work at the Austen Riggs, an open setting psychiatric hospital and residential treatment center specializing in the care of adult patients with complex psychiatric conditions. In addition, she is an adjunct assistant professor at the Smith College School for Social Work, where she teaches in both the doctoral program and clinical supervision certificate program. With 25 years of diverse clinical social work experience across mental health settings – including psychiatric hospitals, residential programs, community mental health agencies, and forensic settings – her scholarship, research, and teaching focus on ethics, system enactments, interprofessional collaboration, psychodynamic systems approaches, family therapy, intergenerational transmission of trauma, and international social work. She is a peer reviewer for several social work journals and volunteers internationally with the non-profit organization International Social Work Solutions. She maintains a private practice specializing in psychotherapy and consultation.
CONTINUING EDUCATION
The American Board of Clinical Social Work (ABCSW), #1854, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 8/23/2024 – 8/23/2027. Social workers attending this event are eligible to receive up to 10 continuing education credits/hours.
Ethics: 6
Clinical Supervision: 3
Duty to Warn: 1
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