Lecture: 4 hours/week
Lecture
Group exercises
Student discussion
Course content will be guided by research, empirical knowledge, and best practices. The following values and principles, consistent with professional standards, inform course content.
- Current models of substance misuse recognize that the experience of people is shaped by the complex intersection of their social locations and identities
- Individual problems are related to larger family, socio-economic, and political issues.
- Whether beginning or experienced, practitioners need to be aware of their biases, personal history, and to work from an anti-colonial and anti-racist lens.
- Social workers are guided by knowledge of the impact of substances on the brain and a broad understanding of the short-term and long-term consequences of substance use/misuse on people's lives.
- Poverty and substance use/misuse are closely related: Socio-economic status is related closely to the procurement, access, and recovery options available to people.
- Social policy strategies for substance misuse must account for the impact of factors such as history, culture, and access to the legal, political, and social structures of society.
- The counselling models used by the social worker need to be inclusive and responsive to various forms of personal expression/identity and the inherent strengths of the individual.
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Evaluate how colonial and capitalist narratives impact social indicators of health making peoplesusceptible to substance use/misuse.
2. Identify healing practices, traditions, and the resiliency of Indigenous people in relation to substance use/misuse.
3. Analyze how systemic, structural, and interpersonal forms of racism can lead to subsance use/misuse and
advocate for change.
4. Compare harm reduction strategies and the medical model in relation to Euro-centric approaches to care.
5. Examine recent developments in brain and drug research in relation to the physiological impacts of trauma
and oppression.
6. Critically analyze the intersections of poverty, gender, culture, and other factors related to substance use/misuse and
how to advocate for change.
Evaluations will be carried out in accordance with ÌÇÐÄvlog´«Ã½Evaluation Policy and will include both formative and summative components. Instructors may use a student's record of attendance and/or level of active partiipation in a course as part of the student's graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline.
This course will conform to ÌÇÐÄvlog´«Ã½policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations. Typical means of assessment may include some or all of the following:
- Examinations
- Written Papers
- Presentations (Individual or Group)
- Attendance
- Participation
Textbooks and materials are to be purchased by students. A list of required textbooks and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester.
None
None
Nil