Statement of Rationale: The management of ethics, boundaries and confidentiality is especially critical for human service professionals and is in a constant state of change. This workshop will address the unique issues encountered during the provision of social services including the emergence of artificial intelligence, managed care, dramatic federal policy changes, workforce challenges, and the ethical implications.

Social workers today face unprecedented challenges: a youth mental health crisis amid provider shortages, rapid advances in artificial intelligence, and shifting demographic and policy landscapes that strain the social safety net. This workshop will examine how these emerging issues intersect with social work ethics and boundaries. Together we will explore critical questions: How can we support youth mental health with declining resources? Is Artificial Intelligence a useful tool to increase productivity and efficiency or a new threat to youth and our profession? What is the role of social workers in responding to anti-DEI policies and other harms to vulnerable groups that our profession is committed to serving? Participants will leave with practical strategies for ethical decision-making and upholding professional boundaries in an era of uncertainty and change.

This training offers practical tools to handle these challenges across different settings and age groups. Participants will learn how to use the NASW Code of Ethics, Wisconsin’s MPSW 20 rules, and Reamer’s Seven-Step Ethical Decision-Making Model to guide their work. Real case examples will explore the balance between client autonomy and safety, the limits of confidentiality, and how documentation and decision-making can affect power and trust. Through discussion and case studies with children, teens, adults, and vulnerable adults, participants will build skills to make thoughtful, defensible choices while keeping clients at the center. By the end of the session, attendees will leave with more confidence and clear strategies for staying true to professional values, even when the best path forward isn’t obvious.

This 4-hour workshop helps social workers navigate free speech, employer expectations, and HIPAA confidentiality while using social media responsibly. Participants will explore the NASW Code of Ethics, federal privacy laws, and workplace policies that guide online behavior. They’ll leave with practical strategies to advocate, educate, and show up authentically without crossing professional or legal boundaries.

As a new technology, AI is rapidly expanding in scope and applications, especially in clinical social work, creating greater efficacy and efficiency in direct work with clients. However, we are running to catch up with the technology in regard to the ethical implications of the use of AI, especially in regard to informed consent, transparency, privacy safeguards, algorithmic fairness and bias, potential for misdiagnosis, and threats to autonomy. This workshop will lay out these implications and the ethical responses to them.