Webinar Details

Registration will close at 5 PM ET on October 14, 2026

Session Description: This presentation applies the ethical principle of “dignity of risk” to clinical practice exploring cognitive and emotional aspects of self and situation that inform decisions to take risks and intervene at micro, mezzo and macro levels to impact issues related to social justice, Social Drivers of Health, and medical hierarchy. The purpose of this presentation is to evoke reflection and engaged conversation with serious illness professionals linking the principle of Dignity of Risk to their work across settings, in communities and interdisciplinary teams. Coined by Robert Persky, Dignity of Risk is a concept originally applied to vulnerable populations and asserts that the right to make choices and take risk is an essential part of growth and dignity. It has been extended to inform discernment and ethical decision making in complex discharge planning in medical settings. This presentation weaves this principle into the professional lives of social work clinicians who work across settings and diagnoses. We consider the historical evolution of social work in healthcare; it’s primary and specialty skill sets and use an interprofessional education lens to link this history to unique personal and professional identities that influence a willingness to take risk. This discussion will create a landscape to explore reasoning and practice examples that invite all team members to consider risk as they make choices to intervene and take risks at micro, mezzo and macro levels of practice . We link the potential impact of risk taking to social justice and inequities, the hierarchy of medical systems and a potential for reducing moral distress for self and team members. Highlighting the Dignity of Risk enriches the personal and professional lens through which we view institutional policies and political structures and invites opportunity and perhaps mandates that we consider how to use voice to influence substandard care and to challenge the forces that sustain negative impacts of Social Drivers of Health.

Speaker: 

Terry Altilio, MSW, LCSW, APHSW-C 

Terry Altilio has three decades experience of direct practice in acute care settings with almost two decades in oncology care. She is a recipient of a Mayday Pain and Society Fellowship Award and a Social Work Leadership Award from the Project on Death in America. She lectures nationally and internationally on pain management, ethics, language and psychosocial issues in serious illness care, teaches in post masters programs, has co-authored journal publications, co-edited the Oxford Texts of Palliative Social Work, Palliative Care – A Guide for Health Social Workers and Mirrors and Windows Reflections on the Journey of Serious Illness Practice. 

Vickie Leff, MSW, LCSW, APHSW-C 

Vickie Leff, MSW, LCSW, APHSW-C is a Palliative Care Consultant and Adjunct Instructor at Yeshiva University, Wurzweiler School of Social Work. She served as Executive Director of SWHPN and prior to that Executive Director of the Advanced Palliative Care & Hospice Social Work Certification. Vickie’s work has been published in Health Affairs, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, Journal of Palliative Medicine and more. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Practical Bioethics. She is an editor of the book Mirrors & Windows: Reflections of the Journey in Serious Illness Practice. 

Christine Beamon, LCSW, CCM, APHSW-C

Christine Beamon is a palliative medicine social worker at White Plains Hospital since 2017.  Ms. Beamon received her master of social work from New York University Silver School of Social Work; she is licensed as Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), holds certification in case management (CCM) and palliative and hospice social work (APHSW-C). She has presented both locally and nationally in serious illness care, taught as an adjunct professor for Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service and is a published author in Mirrors and Windows: Reflections on the Journey in Serious Illness Practice and the Health & Social Work journal.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Define the dignity of risk principle as it relates to the work of healthcare clinicians & aspects of practice such as educational models, institutional policies, & political structures that impact patient experience throughout the care continuum.
2. Participants will associate an awareness of institutional policies & political structures with patient experience thus creating opportunity to engage “dignity of risk” into decisions about how to intervene to mitigate negative outcomes.
3.  Participants will be able to provide three examples of how to integrate the “dignity of risk” principle in their work.

CE credits: 1.5 hours available for purchase
Click here to view Continuing Education information.
Category: Ethics
Educational Level: Intermediate

Please note: Registration will close at 5 PM ET on October 14, 2026

ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORK BOARDS (ASWB):
This organization, Association of Oncology Social Workers, ACE Approval #1351, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 11/11/25 – 11/11/28.  Social workers completing this course receive 1.0 cultural competency continuing education credits.

NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT’S STATE BOARD FOR SOCIAL WORK:
Association of Oncology Social Work, Inc., SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0320.

Completion Requirements:
Social workers must successfully complete a quiz with a 75% passing grade and answer evaluation questions to earn credit for both live and recorded events.

*ACE approval is not accepted by all Boards. Please check the ACE jurisdiction map for a list of jurisdictions that currently accept ACE.