Pets are wonderful supports...usually. Ethical, Legal and Practical Issues for Social Workers

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Delivery: Synchronous virtual classroom via Zoom

Though well-known for providing companionship and joy, animals also provide emotional support to patients battling mental health issues. Their popularity has recently grown with the realization of their benefits, including improved physical health, reduced anxiety, and trauma support, among others.

With this increase of emotional support animals (ESAs), it is essential social workers and clinicians are informed of legislation that governs their use and the ethical implications for clinicians who are considering whether or not to provide ESA assessments and letters.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this session participants will be able to:

• Differentiate between service, therapy, and emotional support animals and provide education to patients, caregivers, and staff about the important differences between each of these classifications.
• Describe the ethical and legal challenges posed by emotional support animal verification letter requests.
• Develop a plan for addressing emotional support requests with their own clients as well as work with their agency and the local veterinary community to build interpersonal relationships that support patients’ needs and the human-animal bond.

Instructor

Christina Bach, LCSW (she/her) holds her master’s degrees in social work and bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a Certified Oncology Social Worker and a Fellow of the Association of Oncology Social Work. Christina is the Chair of the Board of Oncology Social Work Certification.

Christina’s practice is focused on oncology and health care social work. She has worked in inpatient and outpatient physical health and oncology settings and currently works as the Psychosocial Content Editor for OncoLink.org. Here her practice centers on curating accessible patient and caregiver education content in coping with cancer, cancer risk reduction, financial toxicity, and cancer survivorship. She also works closely with her team to research patient experience and outcomes. Currently she is studying the implementation of trauma informed care practices with radiation therapists at Penn Medicine.  She also has a keen interest in the use of technology and social media in conveying patient narrative and experience with medical trauma.

Clinically, Christina works as a Financial Specialist with the Cancer Support Community and also facilitates the Philadelphia Multiple Myeloma Networking Group. Christina is an instructor of Advanced Clinical Practice and a field liaison at the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research 

Christina also worked as the Director of Veterinary Social Work at the Ryan Veterinary Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and during this time, developed a keen interest in the human animal bond and the integration of animals into social work practice. Christina has vast experience in Animal Assisted Therapy and works regularly with her certified therapy dogs, Linus, Huckleberry and Eugene (in training).  She is also a therapy dog team evaluator with Comfort Caring Canine Therapy Dogs.

Cost | CEUs

Program Cost: $50

CEUs: 2 (Includes 1 Ethics CEU)