Ethics and Risk Management: Confidentiality in the Digital World

Author Bio

Subject Matter Experts:

Allen Barsky, JD, MSW, PhD, is a professor of social work at Florida Atlantic University at Boca Raton. He has a background in law, social work, and conflict resolution. Dr. Barsky is past-chair of the National Ethics Committee of the National Association of Social Workers and the author of nine books, including Clinicians in Court, Conflict Resolution for the Helping Professions, and Ethics and Values in Social Work. Dr. Barsky also serves on the review board of the Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics.

Dr. Rachel Birnbaum is an associate professor cross-appointed in Childhood and Social Institutions (Interdisciplinary Studies) and Social Work at King??s University College at Western University, London, Ontario. Dr. Birnbaum has over 25 years of clinical practice experience working with children and families of separation and/or divorce. In the social work program she teaches law and ethics and has written and presented on these issues.

Dr. Birnbaum has also presented and published both nationally and internationally on access to justice issues, ethical decision-making in social work practice and working with high conflict families post separation and/or divorce. She is involved in several major research projects on high conflict families, children??s participation in family disputes, and children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) and parenting issues. She has published four books with her co-authors: (1) Child Custody Assessments: A Resource Guide for Legal and Mental Health Professionals; (2) Challenging Issues in Child Custody Disputes: A Guide for Legal and Mental Health Professionals; (3) Law for Social Workers (4th Edition) by Thomson Reuters; and (4) Practicing Social Work Research: Case Studies for Learning (2011) by the University of Toronto Press and is currently working on a Canadian textbook for social workers and applying ethical decision-making to various case vignettes that includes research and use of self.

Dr. Birnbaum was the 2014 recipient of the Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award presented by an international interdisciplinary organization, AFCC, for research in family justice. She was also the president of the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers for four years, the president of the Canadian Council of Social Work Regulators for two years, and is now the president of AFCC-Ontario.

Laura Groshong, LICSW, is a licensed independent clinical social worker in private practice. She has been a registered lobbyist in Washington State since 2004 and represents six mental health groups on legislative matters related to access to ethical quality mental health treatment. She has worked with a variety of state agencies including the Department of Health, the Department of Licensing, the Health Care Quality Assurance Board, the Insurance Commissioner's Office, the Governor's Office, the state legislature, and other governmental groups, and she has worked in coalitions with other mental health lobbyists and organizations. She has been successful in contributing to the passage of seven bills in the state of Washington. In addition she has contributed to the passage and/or revision of social work licensure laws and rules in over 30 states. Finally, she has served as the Director of Government Relations for the Clinical Work Association nationally since July 2006, consulting on national legislation affecting mental health practice and clinical social work. Her latest book is entitled Clinical Social Work Practice and Legislation: an Overview.

Interviewer:

Barbara Alexander, LCSW, BCD, is a graduate of the Smith College School for Social Work and the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Program of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. After working for 13 years in child psychiatric settings and 30 years in private practice, she is now founder and president of On Good Authority, and an expert interviewer.