Description

Ethical practice in the field of sexual abuse prevention involves more than adherence to professional codes of conduct.  Professionals routinely encounter complex situations in which ethical principles, professional responsibilities, personal values, and competing obligations intersect.  While some professional behaviors are clearly ethical or unethical, others are less clearly defined, raising important questions about the distinction between ethical, unprofessional, and unethical conduct.  This interactive training will explore ethical practice as a continuum, using the ATSA Code of Ethics as its foundation.  Participants will review key principles of the Code and examine how ethical standards inform our decision-making and professional conduct.  Using a scenario-based approach, we will examine some of the ethical complexities we can encounter in our practice and examine the framework for ethical decision-making. 

Presenter Biography:

Dr. Lauren Herbert is the Forensic Evaluation Department Director for the Minnesota Department of Human Services.  In this capacity, she provides leadership and oversees the provision of all of the sexual violence risk assessments completed for those petitioning for a reduction in their custody from their civil commitment as a Sexually Dangerous Person and/or Sexual Psychopathic Personality.  Dr. Herbert’s training is in clinical and forensic psychology.  Her work experiences have included psychological assessment and risk evaluation, neuropsychological assessment, and assessment with those who were referred for evaluation of competency and mental status at the time of offense.  She has also provided forensic psychological consultation to both sworn and civilian police department employees, which specialized consultation to the sex crimes detail.  In her private practice, Dr. Herbert provides clinical services, as well as expert forensic evaluation services.  In addition to clinical work, Dr. Herbert serves as the ATSA Ethics Committee Chair, is the Vice President for the Sexual Offender Civil Commitment Network, has been employed as an adjunct faculty, and provided numerous professional trainings in the areas of sexual offenders, sexual violence risk assessment, best practices in assessment, diagnosis, ethics, risk management, and self-care.  She also has published various research findings and received the Ted Blau Award for her research related to the discussion of a neuropsychological assessment profile of an agenesis of the corpus callosum.