Professional integrity and responsibility require clear boundaries and adherence to professional codes of conduct and ethical standards. When practitioners employ healthy professional boundaries, clients build trusting client relationships which ultimately influences positive client outcomes. Ethical conduct reflects congruence between what the practitioner is supposed to do and what is actually done. This is coded in the profession’s framework – it’s the morals that guide the profession. This interactive session will provide an open forum to discuss strategies for establishing and reinforcing healthy professional boundaries, explore common ethical dilemmas and identify strategies for resolving the dilemmas.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the importance of balancing boundaries and professional conduct in the human services environment
- Identify key strategies for establishing and reinforcing healthy professional boundaries
- Become familiar with the professional Code of Ethics and implications for practice in human services settings
- Explore common ethical dilemmas and identify strategies for effective ethical decision making
- Practice resolving ethical dilemmas
About the Presenters:
Kameko Johnson-Styles, LICSW, LCSW-C is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Washington, DC and Maryland. She currently serves as the Director of Youth, Birth Family, & Community Engagement at The National Center for Children and Families, where she is responsible for ensuring that children and families involved in the foster care system receive supportive, wraparound services until permanency is achieved. In addition, she is a Training and Instructional Fellow at the Institute for Mastery and Integration. For nearly a decade, Kameko has worked as an adjunct professor, presented at several conferences, and co-authored a publication.
Kameko holds a Master of Social Work degree from Howard University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Bowie State University. Kameko is currently a second-year doctoral student in the School of Social Work at Morgan State University.
Alyssa Cartledge, LICSW, LCSW-C is a clinically licensed social worker with a background working with individuals and families in a variety of treatment settings. As an experienced child welfare professional Ms. Cartledge is dedicated to utilizing strategic and results-focused teaming efforts to develop solutions for children and families that address social justice barriers and the compounded impact of trauma. Prior to child welfare, Ms. Cartledge worked in reproductive justice and continues to be driven by equalizing access to healthcare and mental health for marginalized populations; as well as creating supportive structures for the professionals who interact with these populations daily.
Ms. Cartledge is currently a program director of a large foster care and adoption program in the Washington DC metropolitan area and received her master’s degree in social work from the University of Maryland – Baltimore.
Continuing Education:
This program is Approved by the National Association of Social Workers (Approval # 886842050-8095) for 3 continuing education contact hours.
