Client, Family, and Community Education in Addiction Counseling – ADCN 605

Course Description

This course provides an overview of the process of providing clients, families, significant others, and community groups with information on risks related to psychoactive substance use, as well as available prevention, treatment and recovery resources.  Cultural diversity is appreciated and highlighted.  Factors that increase the likelihood for an individual, community, or group to be at-risk for, or resilient to, psychoactive substance use disorders are described, as well as health and behavior problems related to addiction including infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, TB, and STDs.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the Academic Course Catalog.

Rationale

As one of the top three issues presented in counseling, whether academic, occupational, clinical, or church settings, this course is designed to help sharpen the student’s focus on becoming a skillful counselor in this area. The opportunity exists, as in few other areas of counseling practice, for a counselor to bring skillful healing and grace to those struggling with addictive issues. It is difficult to think of another area of practice where the mind, body, soul, and spirit are so clearly intertwined and amenable to effective intervention.

Method of Instruction: This 8 week course is delivered in an online format, with Blackboard^® as the primary instructional delivery method. Students complete one module per week over the duration of the course.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings, articles, website information, presentations, and videos

Course Requirements Checklist Assignment

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions (4)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student is required to create a thread in response to the provided prompt. The thread must be 350–450 words and demonstrate course-related knowledge. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to 2 classmates’ threads. Each reply must be 200–300 words. Each thread must include at least 3 references, and each peer response must include at 1 reference. All references should be written at the end of the post in APA format.

Note: Three Discussions will be Video Discussions in this course, with video replies. See below.

Discussion: Abstinence Project Assignment (3)

This exercise is designed to help you experience some of the feelings/thoughts that addicted individuals experience when they quit their drug or behavior of choice. This exercise requires that you give up a substance (e.g., nicotine, caffeine, or alcohol) or a behavior (e.g., Internet use, eating sweets, playing video/computer games, watching television, cell-phone usage) for a period of 7 weeks. For those of you who have difficulty identifying a substance or behavior, please contact me so we can discuss what might be a challenge for you to give up for this time period. Your progress will be discussed over 3 video discussions. 

Interview with a Person in Recovery Assignment

The student will write a paper in current APA format that reflects an interview with a person in recovery from addiction or with someone who has had drug problems. Students are not allowed and cannot ask someone from any AA or NA meeting they attend for class to do this interview. The paper must include at least 3–4 references in addition to the course textbook.

Experiential Paper Assignment

The student will visit two AA, NA, or Al-Anon meetings (or other types of support meetings), and write a summary of each experience (two papers). Each summary will describe and integrate specific experiential activities gained from the visits. Each summary paper must be written in current APA format. Each paper must include at least 3 – 4 references in addition to the course textbooks and the Bible.

Treatment/Relapse Prevention Plan Assignment

Students will address how they would work with their client using the knowledge obtained from the course. Papers will address models of addiction, information on addictive substances, co-occurring disorders, a theoretical approach and treatment plan, level of treatment, stage of chance, and the counselor’s work with the client, the family, and group/12-step treatment modalities. All papers will be written in APA format and 6-8 pages in length not including cover page or references (abstract not necessary).

Film or Book Review Assignment

Students will read a book or watch a film related to alcohol or other drug use/treatment. There are several movies and books that may be used. If a student has a particular book or film that they would like to present, students need to request permission from the professor. Each film or book review must be at least 3 – 4 pages in length (This does not include a cover page or reference page) and written in APA format.

Quizzes (4)

The first three quizzes will cover the Learn section materials. The student will take multiple quizzes throughout the course, which will allow the student to focus on the most recent information for each quiz. Each quiz is open-book/open-notes, contains 25 multiple-choice/true-false questions, and has a 60-minute time limit.

There will be a comprehensive final quiz covering all material in the course. The quiz will consist of multiple-choice, matching, true/false questions, and one essay. The questions will be taken from textbooks, articles, website information, videos, and presentations. The quiz will have a time limit of 2 hours.