Time: 3PM - 4:30PM Eastern Time

Counselors entering behavioral health often report feeling unprepared for their day-to-day work. Community treatment programs and behavioral health centers have come to accept that the technical skills of "how to be a counselor" in today’s environment are the training responsibility of the hiring organization. As the Affordable Care Act expansion continues, more underserved communities with higher acuity and fewer resources are filling caseloads, and their needs continue to go unmet because the counseling workforce has not been trained on how to advocate properly for patients who qualify for more services than they are receiving. There’s a need for advanced training on advocacy skills for underserved communities to help curb the gap in care delivery matched with identified needs. In this presentation, participants will learn the importance of advocacy skills and how to adjust caseload management expectations to support the unmet needs of underserved communities.

Presenter: 

Samson Teklemariam, LPC, CPTM, is the Vice President of Clinical Services for Behavioral Health Group and the Southeast Regional Vice President for NAADAC. He is an accomplished leader with a history of driving organizational results with learning and development solutions. He was formerly the Director of Training and Professional Development for NAADAC and the National Director of Learning and Development for Phoenix House Foundation. Teklemariam is a certified lead trainer for the Cognitive Behavioral Interventions for Substance Abuse (CBISA) curriculum, Calm Every Storm: Crisis Prevention & Intervention curriculum, and is experienced in the treatment of trauma-related disorders using trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TFCBT) and Seeking Safety. He is passionate about culturally-responsive care for co-occurring conditions, clinical supervision and mentorship, improving access to care barriers, and advocacy for communities in greatest need.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to assess community and patient needs, through the lens of advocacy. 
• Participants will be able to apply caseload management strategies that include community engagement and advocacy efforts for community resources.
• Participants will be able to conceptualize the ethical code, social responsibility, and technical trade of the modern behavioral health counselor.