COVID-19 Resources for Social Workers and Therapists

I’m hoping that this post finds you and your loved ones well under our current difficult circumstances. My heart goes out to those of you who have family members, friends or clients who are sick.

Below is a roundup of over 60 free resources that may be of help to you as a social worker, mental health professional and/or social work educator during the COVID-19 pandemic.

These include free on demand trainings (some of which offer free CEUs), resources to assist with hospice and palliative care, protecting immigrant families, and several social work and higher education specific resources.[Please check back often; this post is being updated daily with additional free trainings etc.]

In addition, I have compiled 30 free self-care tools such as meditations and workouts, and 50 more resources including emergency resources, free pdfs about COVID for toddlers.and virtual tours and more.

Free Support Groups

• Covid and Pregnancy Support Group for staff and faculty at Weill Cornell – Email Margaret Spinelli MD for more info at: mgs8@cumc.columbia.edu
• Support Group for NYC Healthcare Workers – National Institute for the Psychotherapies – for people working in hospitals, clinics, agencies, and other organizational settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Click on link to join on Thursdays at 7:30PM EST.
• Support Group for NYC Frontline Workers – a space where medical professionals can help one another wherever they are. See details below.

Free trainings

1. The American Red Cross is offering a free 2 day live webinar on Psychological First Aid:  Helping Others in Times of Stress on April 13 and 14^th from 1-3PM EST. It will provide 4 CEUs for behavioral health providers.
2. American Management U is offering a free ecourse: Stress Management for Healthcare Providers and Essential Employees.
3. APAC is providing the webinar Supporting Families Through a Pandemic  on April 9 at 1PM EST.
4. APSA is offering The Transition to Teletherapy and Teleanalysis for Children to all analysts and child psychotherapists on April 16, 17 and 18 at 7PM, 7PM and 2PM EST respectively.  You may attend 1 or all 3 sessions.
5. Attachment, Regulation, and Competency is offering videos describing the Attachment, Regulation and Competency (ARC) framework.
6. Arizona Trauma Institute is offering a 90 minute downloadable video training (plus slides) titled Cultivating Sobriety During Times of Crisis.
7. BRSS TACS is providing a webinar for Peer Support Workers across the Continuum of Crisis Services on April 23 at 2PM EST.
8. Clearly Clinical is offering two 1 hour on-demand courses (each 1 CE): Making Sense of the Pandemic: Psychological Impact on Clients and Communities and Swiftly Transitioning to Online Therapy, Legally, Ethically, and Efficiently.
9. The Center for Financial Social Work is providing a 1 hour (1 CE) webinar Coping with the Financial Reality of COVID-19  on April 9 at 2PM EST. Webinar recording and  Financial Reality Coping eBook.
10. The Center for Practice Transformation (University of Minnesota) is offering a 1 hour (1 CE) webinar Telehealth Delivery Training for Mental Health and Substance Use Providers on April 3 at 1PM EST. (In case you missed it, here is a recording.) It is also offering Medicare, HIPAA, and Other Regulations During the COVID-19 Pandemic April 8 at 1PM EST and a 1 hr/CE webinar on Supporting Addiction Recovery During Covid-19 on April 17 at 1PM EST.
11. The Coalition on Human Needs is offering a webinar: Congress and COVID-19: What Has Passed and What Comes Next on April 3 at 2-3:30PM EST. “The legislation enacted so far takes some important steps towards protecting people and shoring up the economy. But it does not do enough, and Congress will have to return to ensure that the people most in need get adequate help.”
12. Columbia School of Social Work is offering a 1 hour/CE [for NYS-, NJ- and CT-licensed social workers, and and NYS mental health counselors] webinar Self-Care During COVID-19 on April 22 at 8:30PM EST.
13. Cornell School w/partners is offering a webinar Will seeking COVID-19 related care affect my immigration status? on April 13 at 12PM EST.
14. Daryl Chow, PhD is making The First Kiss: Undoing The Intake Model and Igniting Engagement From the First Session in Psychotherapy, audiobook available until Sunday, APRIL 12th, 2020, for FREE! Enter promo code: safeapril. Many clients take the first step to see a psychotherapist and do not return after the first session. By following the concepts in this book, you will also develop a perennial framework to sustain your lifelong development plan in improving your first sessions and beyond.
15. Deany Laliotis, LICSW is live streaming Therapy in a Time of Turmoil on April 3, 2020 at 12PM EST addressing questions about working with clients in these challenging new circumstances, and How do I help clients when I’m as unsettled and frightened as they are? How will I cope if one of my clients contracts the coronavirus? What if I do? Here is a recording of the event.
16. Esther Perel is offering a free 4 part weekly series beginning April 1 at 3PM EST: The Art of Us: Love, Loss, Loneliness, and a Pinch of Humor Under Lockdown. If you aren’t able to tune in live, the recordings will be available on Esther’s YouTube channel immediately after to view at any time.
17. Hospice Foundation of America is offering Making Funerals Meaningful in the Age of COVID-19 – an on-demand 1.5 hr/CE webinar.
18. Institute for Creative Mindfulness is offering the following replays Trauma Informed Yoga Nidra for Clinical Professionals, Process Not Perfection: Remote Applications of Expressive Arts Strategies and Telehealth Skill Applications such as a modified version of Progressive Muscle relaxation, a Tai Chi form and noodling.
19. Live Happy Counseling is offering free videos on working with children. Introduction video (designed to help kids learn about emotion and develop some simple strategies for managing worry and stress) and a new video will be posted every week.
20. Dr. Raja Selvam is offering a free 1.5 hour webinar on April 5, 2020 at 12:30PM EST titled Working with your clients and yourself during the Coronavirus pandemic. Use this link to also access the recording and presentation slides.
21. McSilver Institute is providing a webinar Supporting Families Affected by COVID-19 Pandemic on April 2 at 12PM EST, addressing the ways in which infants, toddlers and preschoolers are affected when their usual routines are disrupted and their ability to manage stress and stay regulated are compromised. It is also offering a webinar Identifying and Assisting the Most Vulnerable and Socially Isolated Adults Struggling with Behavioral Health Problems on April 2 at 2PM EST.
22. The Military Healthy System is providing a 1.5 hour (1.5 CEs) webinar on Bioethical and Legal Considerations During the COVID-19 Pandemic for Health Care Providers on April 9 at 2-3:30PM EST.
23. The Mind Body Training Institute is offering weekly support webinars for this difficult time period addressing offering services online, dealing with our own and our client’s stress and anxiety and keeping our businesses running.
24. NASW of California is offering on demand 3hr/CE Telehealth: California Social Work Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and 2 hr/CE Introduction to Gender Identity and the Transgender Community
25. NIP is offering a free weekly Online Support Group for Healthcare Workers – Thursdays at 7:30PM EST for those working in hospitals, clinics, agencies, and other organizational settings during the COVID-19 pandemic. This group will be co-facilitated by Rachel Sopher, LCSW and Chuck Finlon, LCSW. Please direct any questions to them at rachelsopher@gmail.com and cfinlon@nipinst.org.
26. Northeast & Caribbean ATTC is offering a 2 part webinar Part 1: De-Escalation: Basic Tools for Social Workers on April 13 at 12-1:30PM EST and Part 2 on April 27 at 12-1:30PM EST.
27. Northwest ATTC is offering 1 hr/CE Telemental Health Fundamentals: Preparing Your Office and Engaging Your Patients on April 28 at 3PM EST.
28. The NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research and the Community Technical Assistance Center of New York (CTAC) is providing various COVID-19 Training Resources including a replay of Best Practices for Mental Health that focuses on telehealth as a response to COVID-19.
29. The Opportunity Agenda is offering a webinar Justice Out Loud: These Times Call For Nothing Less on April 15 at 3PM EST.
30. Origins is offering several free training videos on resilience in the face of the pandemic.
31. PENN LPS is offering a course on resilience skills and strategies, addressing the unique challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic
32. PESI is now offering a few free shorter telehealth courses (it is no longer offering the previous 12.5 hour class for free). 12.5 Telehealth course for mental health providers that usually costs $440.
33. Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute is offering a series of 6 weekly Friday webinars beginning April 3 at 1pm EST designed to assist therapists… drawn to the deep embodied wisdom of Somatic Experiencing® to be able to regulate nervous systems and restore a sense of safety and wellbeing.
34. SocialWork.Career’s COVID-19 Best in Mental Health includes a few additional trainings as well as relevant articles. Also see Free Mental Health Webinars for June 2020.
35. Southern New Hampshire University is offering Free Online Resources for Educators, Frontline Workers, and the Public in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic – including a full set of free resources for educators to use as they transition to online instruction, free trainings for frontline workers who do not have the option to work from home and need guidance on how to work safely while mitigating the spread of COVID-19.
36. The Steve Frankel Group is offering an on-demand 5 hour/CE course Addressing Issues of Post-Disaster Trauma Relief for Victims and First Responders [no code required].
37. The Vera Institute is offering a Limited English Proficient and Immigrant: COVID-19 Listening Session on April 9 at 2PM EST [opportunity to share the needs of advocates, activists and agencies working with immigrants and Limited English Proficient survivors]/
38. EMDR specific trainings (Please note that EMDR should only be practiced by trained/certified EMDR practitioners.)
    1. Bessel van der Kolk, MD and Pesi are offering a 28 minute on-demand video Stearing ourselves and our clients through new and developing traumas.
    2. Carolyn Settle, MSW and Marianne Turley, LMFT are offering a 1 hr training on the use of EMDR With Children and Teens Using Teletherapy on April 26 at 5 PM EST.
    3. Central Ohio EMDR Connection is offering a free replay of the 2 hour webinar: Ethics of EMDR Therapy and Telehealth During COVID-19.
    4. Craig Penner, LMFT is offering a recording of his webinar A Somatic Perspective for Working Remotely in the Midst of COVID. Password is 3f&3%.86 Two pdfs: presentation handout and window of tolerance.
    5. Derek Farrell‘s online self care session for EMDR practitioners on April at 1PM EST.
    6. EMDR Remote is offering a webinar on how to use a virtual light bar and audio tool on April 21 at 7PM EST. Attached is a worksheet to use during the webinar.
    7. EMDR Training Academy has created a 15 minute video demonstrating how to simulate eye movements and pair it with tactile stimulation in virtual EMDR Therapy settings.
    8. Gary Quinn from the EMDR Institute of Israel has kindly made available this self care procedure for COVID. Here is a replay of the corresponding 2 hour webinar. Access Password: O7$20#78 Using these techniques, clinicians and first responders can obtain nurturing self-care for themselves, and aid those they serve using this procedure either online or by phone.
    9. Gelly Asovski, LCSW-R has created videos of the safe place exercise for adults, teens and kids.
    10. Global Child EMDR Alliance  is offering a 2 hr. webinar Navigating the Challenges & Building Bridges with our Teenage Clients on April 25 at 2PM EST.
    11. Institute for Creative Mindfulness is offering a recording of the webinars:
        Clinical Perspectives On Conducting EMDR Remotely and Working With Dissociation in an Online Environment.
    12. Marchand, J., & Hogg, R. offer a comprehensive video demo on offering BLS (eye movements and tactile).
    13. Notice That podcast with Savage, J., & Sundwall, M. on EMDR and telehealth.
    14. The Personal Transformation Institute is offering a virtual EMDR training to help clinicians with doing virtual EMDR with their clients.
    15. A review of mobile applications for facilitating EMDR treatment of complex trauma and its comordities [open access peer reviewed article Marotta-Walters, S.A., Jain, K., DeNardo, J., Kaur, P., & Kaligounder, S. (2018)]
    16. Robin Shapiro, LICSW is offering an on-demand 27 minute video recording of a portion of a March 27 workshop that she gave, focusing on the use of EMDR and therapeutic issues during COVID.
    17. Roy Kiessling presents EMDR Telehealth Hints (free on demand 50 minute video).
    18. Sarah Jenkins‘ 10 Tips for Working With Telehealth & Complex Trauma.
    19. Springer Publishing is making a wide variety of free articles and book chapters available in response to COVID-19, both EMDR-specific and non-EMDR specific.
    20. Tend is sharing the “Feet on the floor,” a ‘grounding technique by Diana Tikasz, to use with clients after an EMDR session.
    21. The Trauma Institute & Child Trauma Institute is offering two webinars: Grounding Techniques In Tele-Therapy (1 hr/CE) on Thurs, April 23, 9AM EST; Friday April 24, 1 PM EST and 2:30PM EST,  and Trauma Therapy Innovations: Intensive Trauma-Focused Therapy & the Flash  Technique (3 hrs/CEs/EMDRIA CEs) on Thurs, April 23, 1:00 PM EST, and Friday, April 24, 9:00 AM EST..

Podcast/On-Demand Interviews

• COVID-19 Trauma Talks – University of Buffalo ITTIC – “trauma-informed approach to supporting others during the pandemic has illuminated new possibilities pertaining to fostering individual and collective resilience, meaning, and growth…”

Hospice and Palliative Care [Social Media Hashtags to follow: #PalliativeCare #pallicovid #palliatecoronavirus #highriskcovid]

1. 10 Conversations from Experts on COVID19, Grief and Bereavement from the Association for Death Education and Counseling.
2. COVID-19 Pandemic Measures: Ethical Consequences of Barring Families From Hospitals and Long-term Care Centers – Franco A. Carnevale/Medium.
3. Grief During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Considerations for Palliative Care Providers – [open access] Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.
4. Grieving in Exceptional Times – The Irish Hospice Foundation notes how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the traditional ways we mark our grief, and shares different ways that can support ourselves and each other.
5. How do we mourn when forced apart? – article by Millet Israeli in which she explains how COVID-19 has created an environment that may lead many to suffer from more profound or complicated grief.
6. How to talk about some difficult topics related to COVID-19 from VitalTalk, and Specific Phrases & Word Choices that Can Be Helpful from Serious Illness Conversations.
7. Maintaining the “Palliativeness” During Video Visits – 16 minute video from MGH Psychiatry.
8. Specific phrases & word choices that can be helpful when speaking with patients/families during COVID19 – resource for hospice and palliative care.
9. The Palliative Care Social Workers group has put together a handbook of Good Practices for Social Work COVID-19. This is a working document of the National Palliative Care Commission of Portugal and the Social Work task-force of the Portuguese Palliative Care Association.
10. The Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network has put together Resources for Hospice and Palliative Care Social Work Professionals including topics such as respecting choices, serious illness conversations, and a six-step protocol for delivering bad news.
11. COVID-19 Palliative Resources -from the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance continually updated.
12. 10 Ideas for Funerals and Memorials When You Can’t Be Together – from What’s Your Grief.

Serving Immigrant Families

1. Covid19 resources for undocumented communities
2. Guide to Providing Mental Health Services to Immigrants Impacted by Changes to DACA and COVID-19 from Informed Immigrant.
3. Immigrant Workers’ Eligibility for Unemployment Insurance Fact Sheet
4. National Immigration Law Center – Update on Access to Health Care for Immigrants and Their Families
5. Protecting Immigrant Families – Factsheet: Know Your Rights, Protect Your Health
6. Protecting Immigrant Families – Talking Points: Coronavirus
7. Resources for Immigrants during the coronavirus crisis

Serving Communities with Special Needs

• For adults on the spectrum – how to cope with disrupted personal routines, working from home and more.
• For people dealing with cancer from the National Foundation for Cancer Research including a free COVID-19 self-assessment to determine your risk.
• For Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Survivors
• Homeless services for providers
• Medicare Provider Enrollment Relief FAQs
• Promoting Financial Health and Resiliency for People with Disabilities and Their Families by the National Disability Institute; plus key takeaways from its listening sessions.
• Public COVID-19 Resources for the Deaf Community – crowd sourced resource guide.
• Considerations for People Living with HIV and LGBTQIA+ People from the Fenway Institute.
• Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health has resources for children with special health care needs.
• Virtual social resources for seniors – Dorot’s classes through University Without Walls are for seniors in any location. New York Cares is looking for volunteers including seniors who can assist with some virtual projects, like tutoring children. How to Stay Busy and Useful, While Sheltering in Place During Coronavirus Quarantine. Also Strategies to Promote Social Connections Among Older Adults During “Social Distancing” Restrictions.

Social Work/Higher Education Resources [Social Media Hashtags to follow: #swCOVID19 #SocWorkEd #swtech #MacroSW #socialwork]

1. COVID-19 Resources and Updates for Social Workers from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).
2. COVID-19: Can you practice teletherapy across state lines?  The Shrink Space blog has created a chart summarizing the emergency changes (temporary) made to out-of-state licensure requirements.
3. Covid-19 Reorganization Scenarios – replay of webinar and slides from Multiverse Design available.
4. Ethical Exceptions for Social Workers in Light of the #COVID19 Pandemic and Physical Distancing from the New Social Worker Magazine.
5. The 1 minute film “MASK,” produced by two Fordjam students, Yang Xu, FCLC ’21, and Mengxuan Annie Du, FCLC ’20, captures the impact of the stigma surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic within a private phone call between an Asian mother and daughter who live on opposite sides of the world.
6. Digital divide resources during the pandemic from Nten…around 60 million Americans lack access to the internet. A tool to understand the level of connectivity in your community is the Digital Divide Index.
7. Expert Faculty Tips and Guidance from the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.
8. Feeling Stressed About Coronavirus (COVID-19)? from the NY Office of Mental Health.
9. Field education alternatives and tech tools for teaching social work online
10. In this 5 minute Face COVID animation, Dr Russ Harris, illustrates how to use ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) to deal with the Corona crisis and the fear, anxiety and worry that goes with it.
11. Free access to the Publication Manual and more than 160 other APA books through May 25, 2020.
12. A Futures Lens for Covid-19 – Resources for Social Workers, Change Agents, Educators and the Helping Professions – Social Work Futures has gathered resources to support student learning.
13. Leading in a Time of Crisis: Technology Resources for Right Now – a replay of this special webinar offered by theGrand Challenge for Social Work’s Harness Technology for Social Good network and a copy of the slides are available to provide leaders in social work education information about resources they can give to educators, field faculty, and service providers who are using technology.
14. NASW Resources and Support
15. NSWM has rounded up additional helpful COVID resources.
16. New Field Guidelines from CSWE Due to the Pandemic – students who have completed 85% of their required placement hours (i.e., 340 hours for baccalaureate and 765 hours for master’s) to a satisfactory level may, at program discretion, be evaluated as having met their program’s requirements.
17. A Practical Beginner’s Guide to Digital Collaboration: for communities and citizens first using these tools to coordinate activity and organize.
18. Preparing to Defend Your Thesis from Home – webinar by APA on April 30 at 12PM EST.
19. Quarantine: infection prevention, but at what cost for mental health? – from The Mental Elf. Strategies to reduce negative impact on mental health include: Providing people with as much information as possible, providing adequate supplies and promoting altruism over compulsion in maintaining quarantine.
20. Recordings of webinars and resources to support faculty who are new to teaching online from the University of Columbia School of Social Work.
21. Self-Care Starter Kit℠ exercises/worksheet from the University of Buffalo School of Social Work.
22. Social Work and Covid-19 Crisis: International Perspectives – replay of Social Work Action Network webinar.
23. Social Work Assignments related to increasing digital competence in the context of traditional social work curriculum, by Laurel Iverson Hitchcock, Melanie Sage and Nancy J. Smyth. These may be helpful when you are thinking about how to revise assignments to incorporate technology.
24. State Health Coverage Strategies – FAQ from Family USA.
25. Trauma Screening Questionnaire – international screener for PTSD and Complex PTSD recommended by WHO in multiple languages.
26. When the COVID-19 Pandemic Leaves Clients Feeling Helpless – Bessel van der Kolk, MD provides a few ideas to help clients regain a sense of agency during the pandemic in a brief video from NICABM.
27. Why Am I So Tired? Clinician’s Guide to Online Therapy from Patricia Berendson.
28. A series of posts to help social workers and social work educators build a professional learning (or collaboration) network (co-authored by self and others):
    1. What is a Professional Collaboration Network (PCN) & why do you need one?
    2. Twitter for your Professional Collaboration Network (PCN)
    3. How do you do relational Twitter?: Developing your Professional Collaboration Network
    4. Using Twitter at a Professional Conference

Heard of additional COVID-19 resources? Please share in the comments section.

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Last updated: June 13, 2020