Massachusetts Social Work Continuing Education
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MA Social Work All Access Pass
- A convenient learning hub with 24/7 access
- All your required courses in one convenient place
- Multiple learning formats to fit your needs
MA Social Work All Access Pass
- A convenient learning hub with 24/7 access
- All your required courses in one convenient place
- Multiple learning formats to fit your needs
Pursue excellence and fulfill your state CE requirements in one convenient place with an Elite Passport Membership. As a member, you have unlimited access to our entire library of ASWB-approved courses, plus career-building tools and a first look at new and upcoming topics.
What’s inside:
- Learn at your own pace with unlimited 24/7 course access via desktop or mobile, including all required courses
- Exclusive members-only content via the Elite Learning Resource Center and Job Board
- Hundreds of Pharmacology hours
- Track your hours and easily print or manage your course certificates with the Student Dashboard
- Be the first to know about new and upcoming course topics
- Don’t like a course? Drop it and pick another. Try as many courses as you like with no risk!
Massachusetts Social Work CE Packages
Convenient packages designed to help meet your Massachusetts Social Work license requirements.
Massachusetts Social Work CE Requirements 20-Hour Package
Massachusetts Social Work CE Requirements 20-Hour Package
Included Courses:
- Ethical Practices with Older Adults, Revised Updated 1st Edition 3
- Keeping Clients Safe: Error and Safety in Behavioral Health Settings, 2nd Edition 3
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: An Overview, 2nd Edition 2
- Substance Use Disorders: Assessment & Treatment, 1st Edition 5
- Telemental Health: An Alternative to Traditional Psychotherapy 3
- Youth Suicide, Updated 1st Edition 4
More Options
Browse individual courses.
A Clinician's Guide to DSM-5, 2nd Edition
A Clinician's Guide to DSM-5, 2nd Edition
Release Date: October 11, 2018
About the Course:
This intermediate-level course provides clinicians with the most essential information about the manual in a single, easy-to-use source. The course describes the history of the DSM and the development process used in creating the diagnostic system’s new structure. Newly added and classified disorders, removed or reclassified disorders, and any modified diagnostic criteria for those disorders retained in DSM-5 are detailed. The course addresses the controversies and criticisms that arose with the publication of DSM-5. Clinical vignettes highlight diagnosis criteria and quick reference lists and charts included in the course are an indispensable resource for those clinicians ready to use DSM-5.
ADHD: Etiology and Management for Healthcare Professionals
ADHD: Etiology and Management for Healthcare Professionals
Now more than ever, it is important that healthcare professionals be prepared to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) throughout the lifespan. ADHD is no longer seen as a childhood disorder and it is likely that many adults affected by ADHD are undiagnosed. This intermediate-level course has been developed to educate healthcare professionals, such as nurses, social workers, counselors, psychologists, and marriage and family therapists, and to bring clarity and a deeper understanding to the research, diagnosis, and treatment of ADHD in individuals of all ages and various life stages.
Attachment Security: Developmental Effects and Effective Intervention
Attachment Security: Developmental Effects and Effective Intervention
Release Date: September 21, 2017
About the Course
This intermediate-level course begins by reviewing early research and the identification of attachment styles. The basic components of attachment theory are explained while also noting potential racial and cultural biases in the theory and research literature. The effects of insecure attachments and parenting style across developmental domains are discussed. Case studies provide opportunities for clinical application of attachment theory, including how a parent’s own attachment security can influence that of their children and family system. This course provides information on the effects of attachment types on relationships, communication, the development of mental health related concerns, and personality disorders.
Best Practices with Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Youth and Their Families, Updated 1st Edition
Best Practices with Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Youth and Their Families, Updated 1st Edition
Release Date: March 26,2019
About the Course:
The purpose of this basic-level course is to provide human services and mental and behavioral health professionals with definitional information, historical and sociopolitical frameworks impacting the lives of LGB youth, as well as the influences of community and family contexts.
Body Image and Dissatisfaction: Theories and Cultural Considerations
Body Image and Dissatisfaction: Theories and Cultural Considerations
Release Date: November 26, 2018
About the Course
The past two decades have seen a marked increase of interest in body image. This intermediate-level course provides an overview of the complexities of body image and body dissatisfaction for a broad range of populations. This course reviews theoretical foundations of how cultural beauty ideals are transmitted. Through case examples and a review of research, it addresses the internalization of beauty messages in the media, the difference between body dissatisfaction and eating disorders, the relationship between a negative body image and mental health, and the potential progression from negative body image into a clinical eating disorder.
Clinical Psychopharmacology: A Primer
Clinical Psychopharmacology: A Primer
Release Date: February 22, 2019
About the Course
It is essential that clinicians are prepared to discuss psychotropic medications with their clients. Many clinicians have not received appropriate training in this area and problems may arise when a clinician fails to refer a client for a medication evaluation or to address concerns clients may have such as worries about side effects. Clinicians with knowledge of psychotropic medications are a great asset to clients. This intermediate-level course provides information pertaining to psychotropic medications, tools to address client concerns and attitudes toward psychotropic medications, and clinical guidance to support client efforts to effectively discuss psychotropic medications with their prescribers.
Co-Parenting After Separation
Co-Parenting After Separation
Release Date: October 27, 2017
About the Course
This basic-level course offers an updated evidence base related to key factors in parental separation and divorce that are associated with positive outcomes for children and families. With an emphasis on the child’s best interest, the course walks practitioners through parenting children during and after parents separate based on the child’s biopsychosocial and developmental needs. Common problems and appropriate resolutions are described, along with special considerations such as family violence, parental alienation, same sex couples, and relocation. The course focuses on the importance of non-adversarial conflict resolution and continued involvement of both parents in children’s lives within a cooperative co-parenting relationship. Case examples illustrate the key learning points throughout the course.
Cognitive Therapy: Theory, Techniques, and Applications, 2nd Edition
Cognitive Therapy: Theory, Techniques, and Applications, 2nd Edition
Release Date: December 19, 2019
About the Course:
This intermediate-level course provides an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of Cognitive Therapy and a brief history of its evolution prior to describing specific cognitive techniques that are used both within Cognitive Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This course for social workers, and psychologists reviews a foundational understanding of cognitive theory and techniques that can be used either within manualized Cognitive Therapies or to bolster therapeutic skills within other treatment frameworks.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) 101 For Healthcare Professionals
Coronavirus (COVID-19) 101 For Healthcare Professionals
About the Course
Coronavirus, caused by COVID-19, is a rapidly developing disease. As this disease continues to expand and engulf communities across the United States, it is critical that healthcare professionals become informed of the national standards of care provided by the Centers for Disease Control and other authoritative agencies. This basic-level course to provides the latest standardized information that is known about the identification, care, and prevention of the disease.
Cultural Humility for All Healthcare Professionals
Cultural Humility for All Healthcare Professionals
About the Course
This course presents an introduction to cultural humility and offers tools for healthcare professionals to use when working with diverse patients in a culturally humble manner. The course highlights the importance of cultural humility and the reasons why it is necessary and outlines a quantifiable set of attitudes that allow healthcare professionals to work effectively within the cultural context of each patient. There is an understanding that cultural humility is an ongoing process and is a prerequisite for cultural competency.
Cultural Humility in Counseling
Cultural Humility in Counseling
Release Date: October 23, 2017
About the Course:
The American population is extremely diverse and in the upcoming years diversity in the US will continue to increase. Professionals engaged in counseling must become increasingly self-aware and must understand both how their own unique individual experiences influence their worldviews and values and how the unique individual experiences of their clients influence each client’s worldviews and values. This course discusses intersectionality and the ways that various ethnic and racial groups may have a diversity of beliefs, social structures, interactional patterns, and expectations, and how each individual client has various intersecting dimensions of diversity that include socioeconomic class, sexuality, gender identification, and dis/ability.
Disaster Mental Health, 2nd Edition
Disaster Mental Health, 2nd Edition
Release Date: April 26, 2018
About the Course:
Disaster mental health (DMH) interventions in the United States have become recognized as a crucial aspect of disaster response. This basic-level course provides social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists, and psychologists – who are at the forefront of providing assistance to survivors and the communities in which they live – with information about challenges in DMH and tools needed to respond. Risk and protective factors for a number of populations, as well as the wide array of disaster mental health services are described.
Doing the Right Thing: Essential Ethics in Practice, Revised 1st Edition
Doing the Right Thing: Essential Ethics in Practice, Revised 1st Edition
Release Date: January 22, 2018
About the Course:
This course focuses on professional values and identity and the responsibilities of social workers and other professionals in providing ethically sound care to clients. The course provides information about a practitioner’s identification and resolutions of ethical dilemmas, including ethical decision making models, the influence of competing professional values on the decision making process, and required professional competencies. The codes of ethics and professional standards from the professions of social work (NASW, 2017), psychology (APA, 2017), and counseling (ACA, 2014 and AMHCA, 2015) are presented.
Ethical Practices with Older Adults, Revised Updated 1st Edition
Ethical Practices with Older Adults, Revised Updated 1st Edition
Release Date: January 23, 2018
About the Course:
The number of older adults (age 65 and older) living in the United States is growing rapidly. In coming years, healthcare professionals will face this aging of the population, along with the accompanying health and economic challenges. The purpose of this course is to highlight ethical issues that may confront healthcare and behavioral health professionals working with older adults and their families as these individuals near the end of life. This basic-level course is written for healthcare professionals, including social workers, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, and psychologists who work with older adults.
Ethics in Behavioral Health Documentation: Reasons, Risks, and Rewards
Ethics in Behavioral Health Documentation: Reasons, Risks, and Rewards
Release Date: March 28,2019
About the Course:
This intermediate – level course will help novice and seasoned practitioners approach documentation in a way that is guided not solely by what is mandated, but by what is mutually beneficial to the practitioner, the agency, the funding source, and most of all, the clients.
Facing Infertility in the 21st Century
Facing Infertility in the 21st Century
Release Date: December 3, 2018
About the Course:
Infertility is a medical problem with social, emotional, financial, religious, and other personal challenges that affect individuals, couples, and family systems. To combat a Woman’s inability to get pregnant, many people turn to counseling and the medical field for assistance and reproductive advice. This intermediate-level course provides an overview of infertility, the nature and scope of physical causes of infertility, as well as the emotional, social, financial, religious/spiritual, and career challenges faced by individuals and couples experiencing infertility. Treatment modalities are described, concerns for specific populations who experience infertility are discussed throughout using case studies and vignettes.
Humor in Healthcare
Humor in Healthcare
Research indicates that humor helps humans cope with stressful life events and provides them with strength to cope with difficult situations. The purpose of course is to provide healthcare professionals with information about the impact of humor on disease processes and how to appropriately engage in humorous interchanges with patients, families, colleagues, and healthcare providers.
In-Patient Management of Anxiety and Depression
In-Patient Management of Anxiety and Depression
This intermediate course helps to prepare healthcare professionals to differentiate the various mood disorders patients are exhibiting and their causes, identify risk factors for these disorders, recommend treatment options, provide a calm and supportive environment for patients, explore holistic considerations, and use evidence-based complementary therapies to assist patients.
Integrative and Comprehensive Trauma Treatment, 2nd Edition
Integrative and Comprehensive Trauma Treatment, 2nd Edition
Release Date: April 25,2018
About the Course:
This intermediate-level course summarizes the theories on understanding trauma from psychological, developmental, and neurobiological perspectives; discusses various forms of trauma treatment; introduces the reader to integrative approaches to healing that reflect a holistic perspective; and explains practitioner self-care and the prevention of secondary or vicarious traumatization. Case vignettes throughout highlight key learning concepts.
Intimate Partner Violence: Recognition and Intervention, 2nd Edition
Intimate Partner Violence: Recognition and Intervention, 2nd Edition
Release Date: November 20, 2018
About the Course:
This intermediate-level course presents an overview of intimate partner violence (IPV). Types of IPV, risk factors, and health consequences for victims are described, as well as IPV’s effects at various life stages from children to older adults. Screening and assessment strategies are reviewed. Transcultural considerations are addressed, along with working with perpetrators and special populations, such as immigrants, pregnant women, and the LGBTQI community. On a very practical level, the course discusses legal issues, reporting requirements, and necessary documentation when working with victims of IPV. Case vignettes and safety planning worksheets are provided to illustrate key concepts.
Keeping Clients Safe: Error and Safety in Behavioral Health Settings, 2nd Edition
Keeping Clients Safe: Error and Safety in Behavioral Health Settings, 2nd Edition
Release Date: 10/17/2019
About the Course:
The vast majority of behavioral health professionals receive no instruction in client safety, and this knowledge gap compromises the ability of mental health professionals to protect their clients from harm and from being active participants in creating cultures of safety in behavioral health settings. Many behavioral health professionals may not even be aware of The Joint Commission’s reporting program for sentinel events (unanticipated events that result in death or serious physical or psychological injury unrelated to the person’s illness). This basic-level course focuses on client safety problems and solutions in behavioral health settings.
LGBTQQI: Understanding the Acronyms
LGBTQQI: Understanding the Acronyms
About the Course
When working with gender and sexual diversity, clinicians may be confronted by an abundance of terminology with which they are unfamiliar. Terms such as gender nonconforming, non-binary, and cisgender may not have been in use when they were earning their degrees but are in increasing use in the professional literature and in the LGBTQQI world. Because there is now a wide array of terminology, this intermediate level course provides vital information for professionals to educate themselves in order to provide appropriate care for their clients and to ensure that they not do or say anything that can be seen as discriminatory.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment, 2nd Edition
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment, 2nd Edition
Release Date: September 26,2018
About the Course:
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is the fourth most common psychiatric disorder, so clinicians are likely to encounter it in clients seeking mental health treatment. Treatments for OCD take hard work, courage, and trust. Clients can learn strategies for managing their intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, and minimize the effect of symptoms on their relationships with others and in their daily lives. This intermediate-level course provides information about differential diagnosis and reviews appropriate tools clinicians can use to identify and treat clients with this complicated disorder and help them achieve a stable recovery.
Pain Assessment and Management
Pain Assessment and Management
About the Course:
The purpose of this basic-level course is to elaborate on the definition of pain and its perception, factors hampering pain management, assessment of a client for pain, and interventions to improve function in clients with pain. The goal is to provide evidence-based practices that the health professional can use when working with clients who have pain.
Postcombat-Related Disorders: Counseling Veterans and Military Personnel, 2nd Edition
Postcombat-Related Disorders: Counseling Veterans and Military Personnel, 2nd Edition
Release Date: October 8,2018
About the Course:
With increasing frequency, military personnel and veterans experience mental health problems upon return from deployment. This intermediate-level course sensitizes mental health providers to military cultural norms. The course describes postdeployment transition, reintegration, and adjustment, and identifies common mistakes that clinicians make in treating this population. Military families are discussed, including marital satisfaction and the effects of military life on the spouse and children. Assessment and treatment methods for PTSD, depression, suicide risk, substance use disorders, and traumatic brain injury are all described. The various treatment methods are explained in detail, and include case vignettes to illustrate client and therapist interactions.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: An Overview, 2nd Edition
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: An Overview, 2nd Edition
Release Date: May 1,2018
About the Course:
With increasing frequency, military personnel and veterans experience mental health problems upon return from deployment. This intermediate-level course sensitizes mental health providers to military cultural norms. The course describes postdeployment transition, reintegration, and adjustment, and identifies common mistakes that clinicians make in treating this population. Military families are discussed, including marital satisfaction and the effects of military life on the spouse and children. Assessment and treatment methods for PTSD, depression, suicide risk, substance use disorders, and traumatic brain injury are all described. The various treatment methods are explained in detail, and include case vignettes to illustrate client and therapist interactions.
Professional Ethics and Law
Professional Ethics and Law
About the Course
In practicing a profession, three interrelated but distinct areas come into play: professional values, ethics, and the law. Although all three areas are related to one another, sometimes they can conflict with one another. Sometimes, also, values can conflict with other values, as can ethics. When ethics conflict, an ethical dilemma results.
When professional values conflict with professional ethics, the organized and generally agreed-upon framework of an ethical code is vital. When ethics and the law collide, it may be necessary to consult the relevant professional organization. The American Medical Association, for example, has become involved when the law required that a physician be present at an execution. The AMA code of ethics explicitly forbids physicians from participating in capital punishment (Henry, 2018).
This intermediate course is intended to provide healthcare professionals such as social workers with an overview of how professional values, ethics, and the law come into play in mental health practice.
Promoting Mental Health in Schools
Promoting Mental Health in Schools
Release Date: February 23, 2019
About the Course:
This intermediate-level course provides a broad and comprehensive discussion of issues related to behavioral and mental health in schools and presents strategies for prevention, intervention, assessment, and referrals. Emphasizing practical application, assessment, and treatment interventions, this course summarizes multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) and common mental health concerns in school settings, including behavioral, anxiety and depressive-related disorders, substance abuse, child abuse, trauma, and crisis intervention. These topics are explored in relation to multicultural, social justice, and developmental considerations. Family involvement and collaboration with outside service providers and systems is also addressed.
Scope of Substance Abuse Problems in the United States: Trends, Neurobiology and Theories
Scope of Substance Abuse Problems in the United States: Trends, Neurobiology and Theories
Release Date: October 17, 2019
About the Course:
Despite advancements in understanding addictions, substance abuse remains a significant problem for individuals, families, and communities in the United States. This intermediate-level course aims to bring clinicians in varied settings up to date with current trends in use and abuse, and current treatment recommendations. The course provides information on the scope of substance-related problems; categories of commonly abused substances and their neurochemical effects on the brain and an individual’s biopsychosocial functioning; and the major theories of addictions.
Self Injury in Adults and Adolescents, 2nd Edition
Self Injury in Adults and Adolescents, 2nd Edition
Release Date: February 2, 2019
About the Course:
This intermediate-level course provides clinicians with the most up-to-date information on self-injury so they are better able to assess for the presence of the behavior and provide the best possible treatment. The course describes the various presentations of self-injury, presents a history of the diagnosis, and details developmental considerations, risk factors, and possible biopsychosocial functions of self-injury. Attention is paid to assessing, diagnosing, and treating self-injury in a variety of settings, including mental health and school settings.
Substance Use Disorders: Assessment & Treatment, 1st Edition
Substance Use Disorders: Assessment & Treatment, 1st Edition
Release Date: March 7, 2018
About the Course:
Alcohol and drug abuse is a major public health concern, affecting every segment of society. Despite recent advancements in understanding addictions, substance abuse remains a significant problem for individuals, families, and communities in the United States and worldwide. This intermediate-level course is intended for social workers, marriage and family therapists, mental health counselors, and psychologists and aims to bring clinicians in varied settings up to date with current trends in use and abuse, and current treatment recommendations.
Substance Use in Different Populations and Contexts
Substance Use in Different Populations and Contexts
Release Date: May 1, 2018
About the Course:
Alcohol and drug abuse is a major public health concern, affecting every segment of society. It needs to be considered within the context of problematic use of a variety of chemical substances. This intermediate-level course discusses the scope of substance-related problems in the US and the unique needs of various populations affected by substance use disorders including the effects of gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, age, co-occurring disorders, disabilities, and chronic pain conditions. The course also discusses substance use among military veterans, and incarcerated and homeless populations.
Suicide Risk in Adults: Assessment and Intervention, 2nd edition
Suicide Risk in Adults: Assessment and Intervention, 2nd edition
About the Course
The purpose of this course is to assist clinicians in understanding factors that contribute to suicidal behavior, conducting comprehensive suicide risk assessments, and engaging patients in brief, empirically-supported interventions to reduce risk of death. This course meets an increasing demand of many mental health professionals seeking information about working with suicidal clients and conducting empirically-supported suicide risk assessments. This intermediate-level course is designed for social workers, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, educators, community-based program administrators, providers, and psychologists. The course will cover major risk factors, demographics and warning signs for suicidal behavior, as well as provide guidance on clinical risk assessment and options for intervention. Although the information presented here is useful to many mental health providers, no continuing education course can provide all the information that may be required in working with each individual who comes for help. It is therefore important that mental health providers consult knowledgeable colleagues, review the most recent articles and books on the topic of suicide, read and understand the risk-management practices of their agency, and maintain awareness of applicable local and state laws concerning the management and referral of suicidal persons. References and resources for those interested in pursuing further education on this topic are provided at the end of the course.
Telemental Health: An Alternative to Traditional Psychotherapy
Telemental Health: An Alternative to Traditional Psychotherapy
Release Date: October 6, 2018
About the Course:
Telemental health (TMH) is a broad term that refers to the provision of behavioral and mental health services using telecommunications or videoconferencing technology. Because technological advances in TMH are developing so rapidly, many practitioners may not have learned about how these advances can be integrated into clinical practice. Research has shown no evidence that TMH delivery of evidence-based mental health treatment is less effective than in-person delivery, even in the treatment of complex disorders like PTSD. This intermediate-level course provides a framework for understanding issues relating to TMH and offers introductory information for developing TMH clinical practices. Case vignettes are included.
The Essentials of Play Therapy, 1st Edition
The Essentials of Play Therapy, 1st Edition
Release Date: July 23,2018
About the Course:
The Child Mind Institute (2015) reports that nearly 50% of children in the United States meet criteria for a mental health disorder, yet only 7.4% will receive mental health treatment – which could be due, in part, to a lack of training, knowledge, and experience in therapists on how to work with young children. Nonetheless, children suffering the effects of trauma, anxiety, and depression show up regularly in clinical spaces throughout this country. This basic-level course describes the therapeutic and developmental value of play and the two predominant models of treatment: child-centered play therapy and cognitive behavioral play therapy.
The Many Faces of Infidelity: Exploring the Causes and Treatment of Extramarital Relationships
The Many Faces of Infidelity: Exploring the Causes and Treatment of Extramarital Relationships
About the Course
Multiple factors influence a person’s decision to enter into an extramarital affair. Identifiable demographic characteristics and personality traits influence an individual’s decision to engage in infidelity as well. Cyber-sex and online affairs are a relatively new area of knowledge for therapists, and the field’s understanding is still rather limited. However, therapists must treat these affairs with the same level of seriousness as they would an in-person affair. Therapists will continue to encounter situations that are new and enter uncharted territory as the years go on. Individual situations will continue to challenge the long-held beliefs and practices in therapy that are related to infidelity. This intermediate level course will list factors associated with an increased risk of infidelity, identify myths surrounding affairs, and Identify the considerations that all clinicians should understand before working with a couple who has experienced an affair.
Youth Suicide, Updated 1st Edition
Youth Suicide, Updated 1st Edition
Release Date: December 19, 2017
About the Course:
Participants will learn about assessment approaches and treatment planning. A decision-making tree and safety planning and documentation protocols are provided. The course reviews the use of psychopharmacology and of psychotherapies such as dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and attachment-based family therapy. Presentations of case vignettes illuminate key concepts for the various interventions. Special mention is given to clinicians who experience the loss of a patient to suicide. This course is designed for behavioral health specialists, including social workers, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, and psychologists.
Best Practices: LGBTQ+ for Healthcare providers and Clinicians
Best Practices: LGBTQ+ for Healthcare providers and Clinicians
In recent years, more and more patients are coming out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer (LGBTQ) to their mental and physical health care providers. It is essential that providers are aware of best practices in working with LGBTQ people in order to support optimal patient wellness. In this one-hour podcast, we will discuss terminology and barriers to health for LGBTQ people, define minority stress, and understand how multiple stigmatized identities affect an LGBTQ individual’s overall health and well-being.
Note: This is a non-credit course.
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