Programs for Transplant Professionals

Gift of Life Howie's House is approved by the Pennsylvania State Board of Social Workers, Marriage, and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors to offer continuing education for social workers, marriage and family therapists, and professional counselors. The Gift of Life Howie's House maintains the responsibility of this program.

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We offer various programs throughout the year, please check back for upcoming programs.

CEU Program: Understanding the Organ Donation Process and Allocation for Transplant Social Workers

October 8, 2023 AT 1-3PM EST

Register Here

This presentation will review the process for organ donation to transplant surgery, with an additional focus on how organs are allocated throughout the US. This program will review the history of organ donation and transplant in the US, who can be an organ donor, at what point is the local organ procurement organization contacted and what they do to facilitate donation, and finally a review of the rules around organ allocation. Understanding this process is beneficial for transplant social workers to increase their knowledge on when and how organs are procured and allocated, as well as to best educate their transplant patients and families on how they will receive their gift of life.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Describe an Organ Procurement Organization and their role in the donation process.
  2. List criteria for a patient to be identified as a potential organ donor.
  3. Discuss how a donor family is supported through the donation process.
  4. Review organ allocation policies and communication with transplant centers pre-recovery to ensure optimal transplant outcomes.
  5. Provide information on how transplant social workers can educate and support their patients when questions and concerns arise on when and how they will receive their transplant.

This program is Approved by the National Association of Social Workers (Approval # 886593858-4012) for 1 continuing education contact hours.

Please be aware:

The following states do not accept National CE Approval Programs and require individual program/provider application processes: New Jersey, New York, West Virginia

Please note that in order to receive the CEUs for virtual attendance, you must remain logged into the presentation for the entirety of the meeting. Upon receipt of the program evaluation, you will receive your CEU certificate.

Program sponsored by American Society for Transplantation

CEU Program: Understanding the Organ Donation Process and Allocation for Transplant Social Workers

December 1, 2023 AT 1PM EDT

Register Here

While trauma is widely recognized with violent death and tragic incidents, the diagnoses, medical procedures and hospitalizations experienced by patients and families in the course of chronic and life-threatening illness can similarly trigger posttraumatic distress that is complicated by a gamut of challenging emotions, ranging from anxiety and helplessness to anger and  comprehension. In such cases, helping professionals need to adopt a carefully tailored approach that recognizes the role of trauma in impeding clients’ integration of their often jarring experiences over the course of the illness journey.

We will begin by reviewing our understanding of trauma from two dimensions – a spectrum of micro- to macro-traumas and a spectrum of physiological / sensory to psychological distress. We will also introduce key concepts, like window of tolerance and shattered assumptive world, and examine obstacles to processing the event story of the illness. We will then discuss the power of presence as a fundamental dimension of the therapeutic “holding environment” that makes deep work possible with highly vulnerable and traumatized clients. This will provide a context for studying how to facilitate a healing “re-telling” of the traumatic experience under conditions of emotional regulation, deliberation and sensemaking regarding the illness narrative. Drawing on clinical videos.

Learning Objectives
1. Define trauma from an illness perspective and related concepts, such as window of tolerance and shattered assumptive world
2. Implement restorative retelling procedures for mastering the event story of illness and loss
3. Identify markers for the use of narrative retelling of an event story of loss, and guidelines for avoiding re-traumatization.

Program sponsored by American Society for Transplantation


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