Intended for professionals working with individual who may be facing mental illness, including addiction issues, or for those who have an interest in this field.
This course is suggested as a preparatory course for the Concurrent Disorders Certificate Program.
Course Overview
This course aims to help learners further their understanding of addictive behaviour, which in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual includes both substances use issues and problem gambling. We present the biopsychosocial plus (BPS+) model of addiction, which provides a multidimensional way of understanding this complex field.
The main themes in this course include:
social determinants of health
harm reduction
screening and assessment
treatment
legal issues and ethical considerations.
This course covers key concepts and frameworks in the field of addictions and addiction services. It is intended to familiarize course participants to these concepts at an introductory level.
The goal is to balance an emphasis on substance-related and behavioural addictions and to discuss the commonalities between the two. As such, different types of drugs and other substances, their effects, and the different approaches to treatment are presented briefly throughout the course. While this course presents an overview to the topic of addiction, specifically substance use and gambling issues, it also makes reference to mental health issues and to concurrent disorders.
Learning Objectives
After successfully completing this course, learners will be able:
recognize the key characteristics of addiction and theories of its causes
discuss the social determinants of health, diversity and cultural competence
explain trauma-informed practice and recovery-oriented care
describe the BPS+ model and the reasons for this multidimensional approach to addiction
identify key concepts in harm reduction and related strategies
describe screening and assessment processes
describe common types of treatment and guidelines for practice
interpret legal and ethical principles governing assessment, treatment and the therapeutic
relationship.
This course includes instructional activities throughout, including case scenarios for group discussion, interactive review quizzes and embedded self-reflection questions to help link content to practice.
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