Ethical Issues in the Prevention and Treatment of Addiction:
Conduct to Professional Peer Relationships

This 3-hour course is designed to assist counselors in reviewing issues and needs related to ethical behaviors in the addiction treatment field.  The materials presented will explore ethical issues in professional peer relationships within two separate contexts: peer relationships inside the helping organization and relationships with professional peers and agencies external to one's primary work place.

It is one of five course developed from the book "Critical Incidents" Ethical Issues in the Prevention and Treatment of Addiction," by William White and Renée Popovits.

Goals/Objectives

At the completion of this course you will be able to:

1. Examine counselor assumptions about personal and professional ethics;

2. Identify a system to effectively address professional practice issues;

3. Review ethical values and principles that guide counselor behavior;

4. Explore the development of a Code of Professional Practice;

5. Investigate a series of vignettes with regards to conduct within professional peer relationships

6. Identify key elements related to the ethics of professional peer relationships..

Your Course Instructors:
William White
Renée Popovits

William L. White is a Senior Research Consultant at Chestnut Health Systems/Lighthouse Institute.  He has a Master’s degree in Addiction Studies and more than 30 years of experience in the addictions field as a clinician, clinical director, administrator, researcher and well traveled trainer and consultant.  He has provided ethics-related training throughout the United States.  He has authored more than 70 articles and monographs, and seven books, including Slaying the Dragon – The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America.  

Renée Popovits is the founder of the Chicago-based law firm of Popovits and Robinson. She has represented a wide variety of substance abuse and mental health service agencies related to such issues as corporate transactions, regulatory and corporate compliance, confidentiality, licensure, reimbursement, contract, tax exemption, managed care, human resource, electronic records/HIPAA compliance, and public policy matters.  She has lectured extensively and published articles on many of these issues. 

The Lighthouse Institute, a division of Chestnut Health Systems, offers advanced technical education and training for health and human service organizations and a wide variety of management training, consultation, and research services available to organizations throughout the United States.  The Institute also publishes books, curricula, and monographs on topics of interest to its clients.