Taking a Shot at Vaccinations

Taking a Shot at Vaccinations

Curt and Katie chat about Covid vaccinations and how that will impact your work as a therapist. We look at who can be required to get a vaccine, what accommodations can be made for people who do not want to (or cannot) get vaccinated, and the clinical implications of the vaccine conversation coming into the therapy room.

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

In this episode we talk about:

• Laws and ethics related to requiring vaccinations for clients and employees
• Vaccine exemptions and who/how they need to be honored
• The best practices of encouraging
• Accommodations for people who are not vaccinated
• The complexities of following the health advice
• Different considerations for employees and employers
• What the implications are for requiring clients to get vaccines
• The challenges of talking with clients about vaccines
• Other options related to telehealth, masks, timelines for vaccines
• When you may need to refer out
• Strategies for working with insurance in the transition
• What to do when you’re working at an agency
• Implications for mental health access
• Protecting yourself and managing your own risk
• Clinical Implications of the vaccine and how to talk with your clients
• Respecting the different reasons why people may be hesitant or refuse to get vaccinated
• The cultural differences relevant to interaction with the medical system
• The power differential and clinical ramifications
• Helping clients making decisions around vaccination
• Scope of practice and medical decision-making
• The challenge to physical health being out of our scope of practice
• The importance of having adequate knowledge of the science of the vaccines and the health decisions that clients often make
• Where ethics come in – forcing our clients to follow “science” is unethical
• Navigating the power differential
• Additional considerations that we were not able to talk about