Addressing Substance Use Disorder in Health Care Professionals

Featured speaker Dr. Stephen Delisi, Medical Director at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, will examine the neurobiology and neuroscience of addiction and trauma and explain why people who suffer with addiction continue to make the “choices” they make and how these are often not “choices” at all. Participants will learn that what is commonly called “relapse” (a return to use) is really a recurrence of symptoms of a chronic disease, and not a moral failing. This understanding offers attorneys who represent health professionals with substance use disorder a new and more accurate perspective in situations that can be challenging, by helping them to acknowledge and overcome their own biases regarding the disability of addiction.
 
Presenter Laura Nelson, Partner at Stinson LLP, will discuss integrating this understanding of addiction into legal representation of health care practitioners facing adverse professional and licensing actions in connection with a substance use disorder and health care facilities seeking to address these issues in their workforce.

This CLE is approved for credit through March 18, 2024.