Description

Documentation is one of the most frequently performed and least formally taught skills in social work practice. Whether a practitioner is delivering psychotherapy, coordinating services, conducting home visits, or providing peer and community support, the progress note is the primary record of what happened, why it mattered, and what comes next. It also carries ethical, legal, and relational weight: notes may be read by clients, payers, supervisors, courts, and other providers, and the language used can either honor a person’s dignity or reproduce deficit-based and stigmatizing narratives. 

This three-hour session introduces the purpose, structure, and ethics of progress note writing across both clinical and non-clinical social work roles. Participants will compare widely used formats (including SOAP, DAP, BIRP, and GIRP) and will examine how note content shifts depending on role, setting, and funding source. The session emphasizes medical necessity and goal linkage in clinical contexts, objective and observable description in all contexts, and strengths-based, person-centered language that reflects ethical practice.  

Through brief instruction, annotated examples, and hands-on practice rewriting sample notes, participants will leave with a practical framework they can apply immediately in field placements and practice settings.

Learning Outcomes
After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Explain the clinical, ethical, legal, and administrative purposes of progress notes in both clinical and non-clinical social work roles. 

• Differentiate among common documentation formats (SOAP, DAP, BIRP, GIRP, and case management/contact notes) and select a format appropriate to a given role and setting. 

• Distinguish objective observations from subjective interpretations, and rewrite judgmental, vague, or speculative statements into clear, observable, behaviorally specific language. 

• Link documented interventions and client responses to treatment, service, or care plan goals, including the elements that demonstrate medical necessity in billable clinical services. 

• Apply strengths-based, person-centered, and anti-oppressive language principles to progress notes, recognizing how documentation choices can reinforce or interrupt stigma.

Delivery Method
 Synchronous distance learning

Cost
$60.00

Credit Hours
6 ACE

Accreditation

University of Kentucky College of Social Work, Provider # 1377, is approved as an ACE provider 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: 9/29/25-9/29/28. Social workers completing this course receive 3 clinical continuing education credits. 

 

Instructor

Dr. Priscila Llamosa 

Dr. Priscila Llamosa is a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Kentucky College of Social Work. She is a mixed-ethnicity, Latiné, cisgender female whose social work practice and supervision frameworks are grounded in social justice and anti-oppressive approaches. Her education includes a Doctor of Social Work from the University of Kentucky, a Master’s of Social Work, and a graduate certificate in Military and Trauma Counseling from East Carolina University, where she was awarded the Maria McMahon Achievement Award by the School of Social Work in 2015. In addition, she is a University of North Carolina Wilmington 2022 Open Pedagogy Faculty Fellow. Dr. Llamosa’s scholarship has led to national and international conferences, workshops, and speaking engagements, multiple publications, including an open-access book titled Handbook for the Recently Admitted: A Practical Guide for University of Kentucky’s Doctor of Social Work Students, which has been adapted by several other departments and universities.

 

How to Claim Credit
You must attend the training in its entirety and complete an evaluation form.  Attendance will be verified using Zoom attendance reports. 

Cancellation/Refund Policy
If this course is canceled, you will be contacted and given the option of a full refund or a course credit to be used within 1 year.

Questions
Contact Christina.krantz@uky.edu with any questions regarding this course, registration assistance or to request accommodations.