The Bread and Butter: Ethics, Safety, and Best Practices

The Bread and Butter: Ethics, Safety, and Best Practices is a continuing education training designed to strengthen clinicians’ skills in managing high-risk situations while adhering to ethical and legal standards. Participants will review crisis management strategies for clients reporting suicidal or homicidal ideation, including safety planning, DBT TIP skills, and the use of screening tools such as the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), Sheehan Homicidality Tracking Scale (S-HTS), and Homicidal Impulse Attack Scale (HIAS). A central focus of the training is helping clinicians e...Read moreffectively support caregivers and families through solution-focused and grief counseling approaches when they are experiencing fear, distress, or anticipatory loss related to a client’s risk behaviors, with practical strategies for building resilience, identifying strengths, and developing actionable steps that promote safety and stabilization. The workshop also reviews key ethical code provisions, duty to warn and mandated reporting requirements, structured ethical decision-making models, and best practices for legally and ethically defensible clinical documentation. Less...

Learning Objectives

• Effectively use crisis management tools with clients reporting suicidel ideation, including safety plans, safety scales, and DBT TIP skills.
• Create and implement effective safety plans for clients reporting homicidal ideation.
• Demonstrate the basics of three accessible risk assessment screening tools: the Columbia Suicide Severity rating Scale (C-SSRS), the Sheehan Homicidality Tracking Scale (S-HTS), and the Homicidal Impulse Attack Scale (HIAS).
• Apply basic solution-focused counseling skills to caregivers of individuals in crisis.
• Apply basic grief counseling skills to care-givers who have lost loved ones to suicide.
• Identify and summarize the key provisions of the ethical codes that govern their professional licensure.
• Apply a structured ethical decision-making model to clinical scenarios involving boundary concerns, confidentiality, and professional conduct.
• Analyze ethical dilemmas by integrating professional codes and consultation processes.
• Describe statutory requirements related to duty to warn, duty to protect, and mandated reporting.
• Formulate legally and ethically defensible documentation that reflects risk assessment, consultation, and clinical decision-making.

Friday, September 11, 2026

09:00 AM MDT - 04:00 PM MDT