Objective 3: Recognize the crucial nature of staying current and relevant in one’s field through continuing education. The goal of this activity is to understand the importance of never stopping the learning process as a member of the helping fields. We not only have an ethical obligation in the profession to our clients and those we work with, but a legal obligation as well. Complicating things is the fact that laws vary from state to state and often change. Therefore, it will be important to review the critical ways to keep up and current on all key legal issues to ensure we are providing best practices in all areas of work in the field.

• Read Chapter 14 in your textbook by Mandell & Schram.
• Develop a 6-10 PowerPoint slide deck that presents an examination of the key ways to stay current in the field when it comes to legal issues.
• To achieve maximum points for content and analysis, the following elements need to be thoroughly addressed:
  • Visit the website for the CSWMFT of Ohio and discover what is necessary for a counselor in Ohio to stay current in the field when it comes to legal issues. This website can be found at: http://cswmft.ohio.gov/
  • What other ways can a counselor or related helping professional do to stay current with legal issues on the federal and state levels?
  • Highlight laws that every counselor and related helping professional in the human services field must know.
  • Provide information about the pros and cons of “open access to records”.
  • Give at least two examples in your power point of how a counselor could potentially break a law without any intention to do so.
  • Include animations and pictures/clip art to your slide deck (video links are optional).
• Ensure that your slide deck includes a title slide and Reference slide if supporting sources are used.