Integrating a Health Equity Lens into Substance Use Treatment Webinar

NASW-WA Live Webinar

Integrating a Health Equity Lens into Substance Use Treatment Webinar

Date & Time: September 19, 2025, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm, PST via Zoom
Price: $75/members, $120/non-members
CEUs: 3 CE Credits
Presenter: Crystal Bennett, LMSW

Webinar Summary:

The course aims to address substance use treatment through a culturally responsive lens, focusing on health equity, social determinants of health, and the impact of bias and discrimination on healthcare access and outcomes. It emphasizes the importance of understanding and addressing systemic racism, oppression, and bias within healthcare systems and strategies for the cultural adaptations of evidenced based practices to meet the needs of those experiencing substance use.

Through the use of interactive activities, discussions, and reflections participants will explore strategies to apply culturally responsive practices in their work, conduct organizational self assessments and evaluate micro, mezzo and macro level interventions to promote health equity and social justice.

Objectives:

• Participants will be able to identify the factors that impact health equity and evaluate the impact of the social determinants of health among underserved and historically marginalized populations.
• Participants will be able to verbalize how they can integrate culturally responsive practices of healing and recovery in their practice.
• Participants will evaluate how bias and oppression show up in substance use treatment and self-reflect on their own practices.
• Participants will examine opportunities to engage in power sharing with clients and actions to influence institutional and systemic change to promote health equity and social justice.

About the Presenter:

Crystal Bennett, LMSW is an educator, an advocate, a survivor and a self-proclaimed thriver! For the past 25 years she has been driven by her personal experiences of trauma to elevate and amplify the voices of individuals and communities in order to promote healing and opportunities to move from surviving to thriving.

Crystal has demonstrated a passion in sharing her experiences in order to help individuals heal from their personal traumas and work alongside professionals to create trauma informed, culturally inclusive and person-centered spaces. Her experiences include advocacy within the child welfare system, oversight of child and youth programs, crisis hotline response, delivery of community based mental health services and implementing trauma informed strategies and programs for school districts. She has been called upon to provide training, coaching and consultation across the nation in the subject areas of Human Trafficking, Suicide Prevention, Motivational Interviewing, Child Trauma & Maltreatment and Racial Trauma. She is a fierce advocate for social justice and leads courageously to dismantle oppressive systems and create equitable and just services, policies and programs.