Find continuing education courses.

Free State Social Work

This course explores recent research on stimulant use disorders along with best treatment practices. The course examines how cocaine, methamphetamine, and prescription stimulants affect neurobiology, the brain, and behavior. Common medical and psychological complications are discussed. The course describes the best supported treatment approaches; contingency management is highlighted as the primary psychosocial treatment for stimulant disorders. Strategies for supporting patients in treatment and recovery are given.

Free State Social Work

This course explores the unique needs of special populations experiencing stimulant use disorders. The course examines treatment and care considerations for racial/ethnic minorities, women, men who have sex with men, the transgender and gender nonbinary community, adolescents, people experiencing homelessness, rural populations, people involved with the criminal justice system, people with or at risk for HIV/AIDs, and more. Strategies are given for improving engagement, rapport, and treatment outcomes.

Free State Social Work

This course explores current research related to medications to treat opioid use disorder. The course offers an overview of methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone and compares their effectiveness and how they work. Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and diversion risks are discussed. The course examines opioid use disorder treatment for special populations, including those with HIV, those in the military, those in the criminal justice system, and pregnant mothers.

Free State Social Work

This course is the first of a 3-part series on recovery from problematic substance use. The course provides an introduction to recovery-oriented counseling and describes a shift in SUD treatment away from a model of specialized treatment that focuses primarily on abstinence and toward a different model of integrated care that is strengths-based, client-driven, and offers a broad range of services.

Free State Social Work

This course is the second of a 3-part series on recovery from problematic substance use and offers a framework for supporting recovery with counseling. The course explores strengths-based, recovery-oriented counseling and includes a discussion of values, recovery capital, unconditional positive regard, cues for health and well-being, self-efficacy, and motivation.

Free State Social Work

This course examines counseling approaches for promoting harm reduction, preventing recurrence, sustaining recovery, and promoting a healthy life. It explores evidence-based practices including trauma-informed care, motivational interviewing, cognitive-behavioral therapy, contingency management, mindfulness, acceptance and commitment therapy, and psychoeducation. The course also examines four domains that assist a life in recovery: health, home, purpose, and community.

Free State Social Work

Free State Social Work

This course explores opioid use disorder and reviews trends, treatments, and approaches. The course offers an overview of the opioid crisis as one of our biggest public health challenges. Benefits and limitations of existing treatment options are examined with a discussion of naloxone and MOUDs.

Free State Social Work

This course explores prolonged grief disorder and highlights existing psychological therapies and models. The course differentiates between normal and abnormal grief and offers an overview of the DSM-5 diagnosis of prolonged grief disorder, predictors of prolonged grief, and maintenance factors. The reading highlights therapies, including the cognitive model of PTSD as a framework for treating traumatic grief.

Free State Social Work

This course explores the topic of depression in cancer patients and offers a discussion of risk factors, symptoms, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. Common depression screening tools are identified along with suggested questions for the clinical interview. Interventions including coping strategies, antidepressant medications, and psychotherapies are highlighted. Cancer is a risk factor for suicide, and information on the assessment and management of suicide risk in cancer patients is given.

Free State Social Work

This course explores considerations and recommendations for addressing HIV and substance use disorders. Topics related to unstable housing, sexual risk-taking, substance use disorder screening, co-occurring mental health disorders, and antiretroviral therapy (ART) are discussed. The course reviews commonly used substances and their impact on HIV and ART.

Free State Social Work

This course reviews recent literature on suicidal thoughts and behaviors in people on the autism spectrum. Emerging research on suicide risk factors, screening, assessment, and treatment is discussed. The course offers the Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide as a possible framework and explores concepts of thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and acquired capability for suicide.

Free State Social Work

The course explores PTSD in older adults and at the end of life and identifies clinical considerations for assessment and treatment. The course describes how PTSD and aging may interact in new and challenging ways, resulting in the potential for older adults to experience an exacerbation of symptoms for several reasons. Implications for end of life care are considered and strategies for the management of PTSD symptoms are included.

Free State Social Work

Free State Social Work

This course explores trauma assessment and treatment considerations for lesbian, gay, and bisexual veterans. The course identifies unique stressors experienced by sexual minoritized veterans and provides context for minority stress and trauma. Topics of post-traumatic stress disorder, Criterion A events, diagnostic assessment, rapport, and evidence-based practice are discussed. Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure Therapy are highlighted.

Free State Social Work

This course explores current AI trends and future prospects for enhancing mental health. The course examines the transformative role of AI in mental healthcare and highlights applications in diagnosis, treatment, therapy delivery, monitoring, and follow-up. Current examples of AI tools are provided, including chatbot-based therapy, emotional health apps, and smart mental health tools. Strengths, limitations, and ethical considerations are discussed.

Free State Social Work

This course explores the history of artificial intelligence, the use of algorithms, and the influence of algorithms on areas of healthcare, housing, employment, and criminal justice. The course highlights concerns related to the implementation of AI that include injustices to marginalized groups. The course outlines four ways for social workers to advocate for digital inclusion and social justice: resist, regulate, reimagine, and reinforce.

Free State Social Work

Free State Social Work

Explores ethical and legal considerations for AI development in healthcare, examining principles of privacy, confidentiality, autonomy, informed consent, beneficence, and nonmaleficence, with emphasis on bias, responsibility, and liability.

Free State Social Work

Free State Social Work

This course examines key ethical considerations related to the use of mental health chatbots and highlights a 5-principle ethical framework that includes the principles of non-maleficence, beneficence, respect for autonomy, justice, and explicability.

Free State Social Work

This course explores the ethical challenges of conversational AI in mental health care. The course highlights a literature review and identifies 10 main ethical themes: safety and harm; explicability, transparency, and trust; responsibility and accountability; empathy and humanness; justice; anthropomorphization and deception; autonomy; privacy and confidentiality; and effectiveness. A bioethical framework is utilized to discuss findings.

Free State Social Work

This course explores marijuana use disorder and youth marijuana prevention. The course provides an overview of marijuana, its potency, methods of use, changes in use, and prevalence and offers a discussion of short- and long-term adverse effects and harms. Risk and protective factors are examined along with challenges to prevention efforts. Promising substance use prevention programs and interventions are given.

Free State Social Work

This course examines the prevalence of prescription stimulant use and misuse among youth and young adults. Short and long term health effects of prescription stimulant use are explored along with risk and protective factors. Opportunities for prevention are discussed, and considerations for screening, assessment, and treatment are given.