Select workshops at the 2022 Western New York Harm Reduction Conference will be accredited for New York State licensed Social Workers (LMSWs or LCSWs only) to earn Continuing Education Contact Hours. To be eligible to earn credit, conference participants must do the following:

  1. Register for each workshop that you want to attend for credit. Each workshop requires its own registration in order to be eligible for credit.
  2. Attend the workshop in person and in full. Participants must sign in and sign out.
  3. Complete a post-workshop Learning Assessment (to be emailed to all workshop CEU registrants).
  4. Complete a post-workshop Course Evaluation (to be emailed to all workshop CEU registrants).

Participants seeking CE hours must attend the entirety of the course activity to receive credits. Individuals must also complete a learning assessment and a course evaluation. Participants will receive a QR code at the end of the course to access evaluation and assessment. This will also be emailed to participants at the end of the course presentation. Social workers seeking CE hours must be registered, attend the full training, complete all questions for both the course evaluation and the learning assessment and must receive a pass of 80% or more to receive a certificate of completion with 1.5 continuing education contact hours. Certificates for CE hours will be emailed 2–3 weeks after the date of the training. Participants should save or print the certificate for their records.

IMPORTANT: In addition to registering for any specific workshops to earn CE hours, participants MUST also register for the overall conference. Register for the conference here.

Workshop Descriptions

Embracing Ambivalence: Techniques for Developing Engagement and Building Motivation

Time: August 11, 11:15 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.

Presenter: Jason Holloway, PsyD, Center for Optimal Living

Target Audience for CE hours: Behavioral health clinicians (LMSWs and LCSWs) including, but not limited to, social workers, substance use counselors, mental health counselors, and art therapists

Course Format/Mode of Delivery: This course is a 1.5-hour presentation/interactive meeting. Attendance must be in person.

Course Overview: Ambivalence is the state of having conflicting feelings about something or someone. Many people with substance use concerns will at times experience ambivalence about their use, and understanding this uncertainty is a vital aspect of treatment, no matter your role in helping someone. Learning how to strategically reflect our patients’ ambivalence is a key intervention in Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (IHRP). This workshop will identify specific opportunities for case managers, clinicians, peer support specialists, and others to use these techniques in a way that helps clients focus on what is most important to them about their use. It will describe techniques for assessing and building motivation to make change and reduce harm by identifying commitments to self, commitments to others, and personal values. Emphasis will be placed on motivational techniques that can be applied across the continuum of care.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Develop a highly effective therapeutic stance for helping individuals engage in their own change-making.
  2. Identify when our own clinical agenda may conflict with our patients’ goals.
  3. Become familiar with IHRP strategies including Urge Surfing, Microanalysis, Embracing Ambivalence, and the Ideal Use Plan.

About the Presenter:

Jason Holloway is a licensed clinical psychologist at the Center for Optimal Living in New York City, where he specializes in treating substance use and related mental health concerns. Much of Jason’s work has been concentrated in long-term, trauma-informed psychotherapies for individuals who use substances. As a transgender psychologist, Dr. Holloway is passionate about working with members of the LGBTQ community.

Registration Link: https://forms.office.com/r/jT584tYQse

Saying Yes When the System Says No: Practicing Harm Reduction with Mandated Clients

Time: August 11, 2:15 – 3:45 p.m.

Presenters: Delores Blackwell, PhD, LCSW, Housing Works; Patricia Lincourt, LCSW, NYS Office of Addiction Services and Supports

Target Audience for CE hours: Behavioral health clinicians (LMSWs and LCSWs) including, but not limited to, social workers, substance use counselors, mental health counselors, and art therapists

Course Format/Mode of Delivery: This course is a 1.5-hour presentation/interactive meeting. Attendance must be in person.

Course Overview: While harm reduction believes in meeting people where they are at, the abstinence-based ideology of the criminal justice system can present a conflict for justice-involved clients. This workshop will explore the challenges of collaborating with mandating entities and present strategies to engage the courts, probation, and parole as a collaborative member of the treatment team. Underlying these strategies is an ongoing commitment to social justice implicit in harm reduction. Participants at all levels of experience and interest are welcome to attend.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Learn how to facilitate conversations with mandating entities around harm reduction approaches.
  2. Discuss how to navigate difficult conversations with clients about being mandated to care.
  3. Develop a higher level of self-efficacy to engage with managing entities.

About the Presenters:

Delores Blackwell is a multijurisdictional licensed clinical social worker, a master addiction counselor, a certified trauma professional and a certified compassion fatigue professional and holds multiple certifications. She has held numerous administrative and clinical positions within both the addictions and mental health disciplines and currently serves as Director of OASAS Services at Housing Works. She is an adjunct professor at both Touro College and at Hunter College Silberman School of Social Work where she teaches advanced clinical courses and the practice lab. She also conducts and develops trainings for both mental health and addictions professionals in both direct practice and leadership positions and is educational training provider with OASAS on such areas as Harm Reduction, Cultural Diversity, Clinical Supervision and TGNCNB Cultural Competency.

Patricia Lincourt currently serves as the Associate Commissioner for Addiction Treatment and Recovery Services at the NYS Office of Addiction Supports and Services.  In her role she oversees treatment and recovery services. With over 30 years of clinical and administrative experience in addiction, mental health and child welfare settings, Patricia has implemented aspects of several Medicaid reform initiatives, including managed care carve-in, Delivery System Reform and Incentive Payment, and Value Based payment approaches to addiction care. She has published several articles in peer reviewed journals on Motivational Interviewing, Quality Improvement in SUD programs, and Level of Care Determination. She has a Master’s degree in Social Work from the State University of New York at Albany and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.

Registration Link: https://forms.office.com/r/0TAXvZUeMa

CRAFT and the Invitation to Change Approach: Combining Science and Kindness for Families

Time: August 11, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

Presenters: Jeremy Novich, PsyD., CMC: Foundation for Change

Target Audience for CE hours: Behavioral health clinicians (LMSWs and LCSWs) including, but not limited to, social workers, substance use counselors, mental health counselors, and art therapists

Course Format/Mode of Delivery: This course is a 1.5-hour presentation/interactive meeting. Attendance must be in person.

Course Overview: Family and friends of people struggling with substance use or other behaviors are incredibly motivated to help their loved ones. Unfortunately, they are often given advice that is punitive (“tough love”) or blaming (“enabling”), or they are told to detach altogether. The Invitation to Change Approach® (ITC) challenges these ineffective and stigmatizing messages by bringing together evidence-based principles and practices, including kindness. ITC empowers laypeople (family, friends, first responders, educators, faith-based leaders) and health professionals (nurses, doctors, therapists, recovery coaches) to help a person struggling with substance use or other problematic behaviors. The model includes key elements of Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and self-compassion in a framework that is user-friendly, jargon-free, and ready for anyone in a helping role. ITC will help you bring science, kindness, and compassion to everyone involved in the change process—including yourself!

Learning Objectives:

  1. Gain a better understanding of the major components of ITC: Helping with Understanding, Helping with Awareness, Helping with Actions.
  2. Understand the evidence-based protocols supporting ITC.
  3. Become familiar with the strategies and skills that family members can implement when assisting a loved one with a substance use problem.
  4. Become aware of ITC print and online resources as well as existing community supports.

About the Presenters:

Jeremy Novich is a psychologist at the Center for Motivation and Change, where he co-leads a harm reduction skills group and provides individual therapy from a harm reduction perspective. In addition to helping people work on their relationships with substances, Dr. Novich helps family members influence their struggling loved one in a kind, compassionate, and effective way. He earned his Psy.D. from Long Island University, where he concentrated in serious mental illness. After graduation, he completed an APA-accredited internship at Pace University Counseling Center in lower Manhattan, and a postdoctoral fellowship in Student Counseling and Disability Services at Stevens Institute of Technology. He also holds a certificate in Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy from the Center for Optimal Living.

Registration Link: https://forms.office.com/r/zdWTrdVAns

Innovations in the Harm Reduction Approach to Stimulant Use

Time: August 12, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

Presenters: Pierre Arty, MD, Housing Works; Andrew Bonfrancesco, LCSW, Housing Works; Liz Whipple, MS, CBIS, Evergreen Health; John Barry, LMSW, Southern Tier AIDS Program (moderator)

Target Audience for CE hours: Behavioral health clinicians (LMSWs and LCSWs) including, but not limited to, social workers, substance use counselors, mental health counselors, and art therapists

Course Format/Mode of Delivery: This course is a 1.5-hour presentation/interactive meeting. Attendance must be in person.

Course Overview: While national attention is focused on the opioid overdose crisis, clinical and social service practitioners are also grappling with the growing prevalence of stimulant use, including crystal methamphetamine. Providers are blazing a trail by pioneering clinical and community-based strategies to support a harm reduction approach to stimulant use. This workshop will share effective programs that have been developed and explore paths for future innovation in this area.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Discuss pharmacological strategies that have been tested to support harm reduction for crystal methamphetamine and other stimulant use.
  2. Explore community-driven program models that address stimulant use and other harm reduction priorities, such as HIV and hepatitis C prevention.
  3. Identify gaps in community knowledge around substance use and ways to promote increased awareness and training on this subject.

About the Presenters:

Pierre Arty is Chief Psychiatric Officer at Housing Works. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the American Board of Addiction Medicine. Previously he held the positions of Director of the Kings County Addictive Disease Services (2003-2004) and Deputy Executive Director of Kings County Hospital’s Behavioral Health Department (2004-2008). He was also Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn from 2000-2008. Pierre received his medical degree from SUNY Downstate Health Science Center at Brooklyn College of Medicine. After completing an Internal Medicine residency at Kings County Hospital, he pursued a fellowship as a Subspecialty Resident in Substance Abuse from the State University Kings County Hospital Center followed by a second residency in Psychiatry at the same institution. He has received numerous awards for his help in improving medical care to the East Flatbush community and for his service to undeserved people in New York City.

John Barry is a licensed social worker and a University of Chicago graduate with an A.M. in Social Service Administration. He has 30 years of experience in the fields of HIV, substance use treatment and mental health in both direct service and administrative roles. He has been an adjunct instructor at SUNY Cortland and Binghamton University. He has been the Executive Director of the Southern Tier AIDS Program (STAP) since 2008, and he was a case manager there in the early 1990s and a volunteer in the 1980s. STAP was one of the initial three pilot sites for NYS’s Drug User Health Hub initiative, and STAP staff have conducted published research on Hepatitis C and injection drug use in rural areas. Mr. Barry advocates strongly that the healthcare resources and public health infrastructure that exist in urban areas should also be available in the rural areas of New York State.

Liz Whipple (she/her) has worked in Harm Reduction for seven years as the Director of Harm Reduction at Evergreen Health. Additionally, she instructs part-time as an adjunct professor at Medaille University. It took Liz approximately 20 seconds for her to realize she belongs working with drug users. She earned her master’s degree in Psychology in 2015, and her Certified Brain Injury Specialist (CBIS) accreditation in 2019 to bring awareness to brain injuries as it relates to opioid overdose. She also has a specific fervor for providing safer injection counseling to syringe exchange participants. Liz has shared her passion and talents presenting at the 2018 WNY Harm Reduction Conference, as well as the 2018 National Harm Reduction Conference in New Orleans.

Registration Link: https://forms.office.com/r/YhJEwTGNa9