Wednesday-Only Registration
Members | $45.00
Non-Members | $65.00
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Agenda
Confidentiality, Discretion & Trust - Heather Connors, PhD
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 | 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Virtual (Zoom) | 2 CEUs
Guardians uncover personal information about clients and their families. Often, these clients live in group settings where privacy is limited, and/or they are supported by a varied team of individuals who may not share a deep understanding of confidentiality.
Now add on social media and the over-sharing that has become so widely accepted in many people’s lives, and the challenges associated with maintaining a person’s privacy have grown dramatically.
Yet, “confidentiality, discretion & trust” are still among the most profoundly important fundamental principles of guardianship. What are guardians expected to do to balance collaboration, cooperation and discretion in this day and age?
In this 2-hour virtual workshop, Heather Connors, PhD, Executive Director of The Center for Guardianship Excellence, shares useful and memorable ways to understand and apply new rules of confidentiality to today’s real-world challenges.
During this informative, interactive workshop, participants will learn:
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How the National Guardianship Association describes expectations for maintaining confidentiality.
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The topics to focus on where privacy is essential.
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Best practices for being seen actively protecting confidentiality.
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Four types of inquiries and how to determine when sharing information is appropriate.
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Ideas for handling social media.
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Speaker Information
Heather Connors, PhD
Dr. Heather Connors is a Gerontologist, National Certified Guardian, and advocate for ethical guardianship. During the last twenty years she has worked as a professional guardian, researcher, college professor and speaker. Her vision for educating and supporting professional and family guardians has come to life at The Center for Guardianship Excellence.
As Executive Director, Heather leads research projects that help to reveal information about the needs of adults with temporary or long-term challenges that can be described as incapacity. This research is used to develop training programs and tools for guardians and families of adults in need of decisional support.
She is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences and educational summits on subjects related to providing logical, thorough, thoughtful and well-documented decisional support for adults.
She earned her Doctorate of Philosophy in Gerontology Policy Studies from the University of Massachusetts Boston, a Master of Science in Gerontology from the University of Massachusetts, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the College of the Holy Cross.
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