Preventing Medical Errors in Behavioral Health is a 2-hour online continuing education (CE) course that offers strategies for avoiding medical errors in mental health practice.
This course is intended to increase clinicians’ awareness of the many types of errors that can occur within mental health practice, how such errors damage clients, and numerous ways they can be prevented. Its emphasis is on areas within mental health practice that carry the potential for “medical” errors.
Examples include improper diagnosis, breaches of privacy and confidentiality, mandatory reporting requirements, managing dangerous clients, boundary violations and sexual misconduct, use of technology, the informed consent process, and competence. Most errors arise from inadequate attention to the various educational, clinical, ethical, and legal resources available. This course will illustrate the kinds of “medical” errors that can occur in psychotherapy practice and will offer strategies for avoiding them.
Also included are sections on root cause analysis, suicide assessment, medical conditions presenting as a psychological disorder, psychotherapy in the digital age, including the use of social networking platforms, the challenges of maintaining and transmitting electronic records, email, text messaging, best practices for teletherapy, and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in practice. Case examples are included throughout.
Course #21-68 | 2026 | 37 pages | 15 posttest questions | Mobile-Friendly
* This course satisfies the medical errors requirement for license renewal of Florida mental health professionals (counselors, social workers, MFTs, psychologists, and school psychologists).
Course Directions
This online course provides instant access to the course materials and CE test. The course is text-based (reading), and the CE test is open-book (you can print the test to mark your answers on it while reading the course materials).
Successful completion of this course involves passing an online test (80% required, 3 chances to take) and we ask that you also complete a brief course evaluation.
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Professional Development Resources, a small Florida nonprofit educational corporation 501(c)(3) organized in 1992, is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Professional Development Resources maintains responsibility for all programs and content. Professional Development Resources is also approved by the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC ACEP #5590); the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB #1046, ACE Program); the Continuing Education Board of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA #AAUM); the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA #3159); the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR Prior Approval Program); the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage & Family Therapy, and Mental Health Counseling, Board of Psychology, Office of School Psychology, Board of Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology, Board of Occupational Therapy, and Dietetics and Nutrition Practice Council; the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists (#PSY-0145), State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors (#MHC-0135) and marriage and family therapists (#MFT-0100), and the State Board for Social Workers as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers (#SW-0664); the South Carolina Board of Professional Counselors and Marriage & Family Therapists (#193); the Texas Board of Examiners of Marriage and Family Therapists (#114) and State Board of Social Worker Examiners (#5678); and is CE Broker compliant (#50-1635 – completions are reported next business day, currently reporting for 47 boards). Learn more about us.
PDR offers over 150 accredited online CE courses for healthcare professionals.
Target Audience: Psychologists, School Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists (MFTs), Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs), Occupational Therapists (OTs), Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs), and Teachers
Enjoy 20% off all online continuing education (CE/CEU) courses @pdresources.org! Click here for details.