Preferred registration deadline: August 21st

3 CEs

Suicide risk assessment and safety planning often require clinicians to make rapid, high-stakes decisions in situations marked by uncertainty, competing obligations, and profound ethical complexity. Clinical social workers and mental health professionals must balance respect for client autonomy with duties to protect life, while navigating legal mandates, organizational policies, and the realities of resource availability.

This workshop explores ethical decision-making across the continuum of suicide risk assessment and intervention, with a focus on complex dilemmas such as activating emergency response systems, involving law enforcement, or pursuing hospitalization. Grounded in professional ethical standards and evidence-informed practices, participants will examine the clinical, ethical, and relational implications of voluntary versus involuntary interventions, including how decisions may be shaped by cultural context, structural inequities, trauma histories, and prior system involvement. Emphasis is placed on minimizing unnecessary coercion, strengthening the therapeutic alliance, and making ethically defensible decisions that prioritize both safety and dignity. Through structured decision-making frameworks, case examples, and guided discussion, participants will learn to weigh risk and protective factors, incorporate client preferences, document clinical reasoning, and engage clients collaboratively and transparently when cons

This workshop meets the licensure requirement for 3 hours of continuing education in ethics. This is an in-person workshop that will be held on Washington University’s Danforth Campus. The exact location and directions will be emailed to registered participants before the course date.

General Admission: $65**
**Eligible discounts can be applied during checkout.

Class size is limited to 30.

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Course Outline

Content Level: Intermediate

Target Audiences: Social Workers, Counselors, Psychologists, Public Health Workers, School Social Workers, and Clinical Personnel making ethical decisions about risk assessments.

Agenda:

• Welcome, Framing, and Learning Contract - 15 mins
• Ethical Foundations and Decision Frameworks - 40 mins
• Navigating High-Stakes Dilemmas - 45 mins
• Collaborative Safety Planning and Clinical Judgment - 45 mins
• Case Application and Documentation Practice - 30 mins
• Key Takeaways and Reflection - 5 mins

Learner Outcomes

• Apply ethical principles and professional standards to analyze dilemmas in suicide risk assessment, including decisions related to emergency response, law enforcement involvement, and hospitalization.
• Differentiate clinical and ethical considerations associated with voluntary and involuntary interventions, including potential benefits, risks, and unintended consequences.
• Use professional judgment to integrate client preferences, risk indicators, and contextual factors when developing ethically informed safety planning responses.

Course Completion Requirements:

• The Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, Professional Development, provider #2130, 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: 9/24/2025 – 9/24/2028. Social workers completing this course receive 3 ethics continuing education credits.
• The Brown School is also an approved provider of Social Work CEs in Missouri and Illinois.
• To earn ACE credit, attendees must arrive at the scheduled time, attend the entire course, and complete an online course evaluation. ACE credit is not provided for partial attendance.  However, you may still qualify for partial Social Work Missouri and Illinois CEs provided by the Brown School.
• Brown School CE Certificates will be available online within 10 business days of course completion by visiting your learner profile at https://ce.wustl.edu/portal/logon.do?method=load&parentSite=brown.  You will receive an email notification with specific instructions for accessing the online certificate when it is available. ACE CE Certificates, if requested in your evaluation survey, will be emailed within 10 business days of course completion.
• For more information about CEs, accessibility, refund/cancelation policy, our grievance policy, or other inquiries, please visit our About Us page or email brownprofdev@wustl.edu.