Addictions & Community Health Professional Diploma

By acquiring the necessary adjustment skills, you can successfully transition to post-secondary education and confidently complete your Diploma. This course will help you discover your unique learning style, set learning goals, and develop effective notetaking and test-taking skills.

What will you learn:

• Time management.
• Effective notetaking.
• How to prepare and take tests.

Communication is vital in the modern era and this course provides the essential skills required to deliver compelling and proficient oral presentations through the application of proper speaking techniques. As a student, you will be exposed to a wide range of effective strategies that guide you in the planning, execution, and inevitable questions that follow a presentation. As well, students are equipped with the knowledge to create catchy visual aids that increase the overall effectiveness of their presentations.

What You Will Learn:

• Understand the different forms of communication.
• Identify problems that can affect clear communication.
• The importance of body language as a tool for engaging your audience.
• Using proven strategies and techniques for delivering a compelling presentation.

Gain a deep understanding of the current state of addictions in Canada by exploring the various factors that contribute to the prevalence of addictions, including behavioural addictions, homelessness, and the availability of family support resources. Additionally, the course examines the concept of harm reduction and how it is applied in the context of addiction treatment. 

Throughout the course, students will engage in critical analysis of the complex issues surrounding addiction in Canada. You will examine the impact of socioeconomic factors, cultural attitudes, and government policies on addiction rates and treatment outcomes. Furthermore, students will gain insight into the unique challenges faced by individuals and communities affected by addiction. 

Students get a comprehensive understanding of the current landscape of addictions in Canada, and the tools and resources available to address this complex issue. They will be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to develop effective strategies for supporting individuals and communities affected by addiction. 

What will you learn: 

• Understand addiction, its causes, and associated stigma. Discover local treatment facilities and their services. 
• Explore the role of the family in addiction recovery, the 12-step program stages, and the interplay between trauma, resilience, and privilege. 
• Define the ACE questionnaire, and narrative medicine, and examine the causes, statistics, stigmas, and solutions surrounding homelessness. 
• Take the Implicit Association Test to learn about biases related to addiction. Analyze how politics influence addiction awareness, treatment options, and resource availability. 

Outlook, Microsoft’s email platform, is widely used by offices worldwide. In this course, students will learn how to utilize the program’s file management system and edit text, format, and print files received as part of incoming mail. These are some of the most frequently used functions of Outlook in an office environment and are performed daily. 

What will you learn: 

• Setting up new email accounts. 
• Assigning categories to tag, label and group messages. 
• Use tracking options for messages. 
• Set up automatic replies. 

This course provides a general overview of ethics, including the essential skills needed to navigate problems and personal difficulties that arise when working as a helper. Topics covered in this course include an introduction to helping professions, working with difficult clients, values and diversity in counselling, ethical relationship issues, boundary issues, working with groups and families, community counselling, and crisis work. By the end of this course, you will have a deeper understanding of the ethical considerations and challenges faced in helping professions. You will possess the necessary skills to navigate complex situations and make informed decisions, ensuring that you provide ethical and professional care to your clients. 

What will you learn: 

• Identifying the nine stages of development from infancy to old age, evaluating factors in choosing a career path, and discussing values and value-laden issues that arise in counselling relationships. 
• Understanding and managing transference, countertransference, problematic client behaviours, and the stages of change. Identifying the five stages of the Helping Process and describing the major elements and techniques of the psychoanalytic, alderian, existential, gestalt, and cognitive-behavioural approaches. 
• Defining the roles of ethics, laws, professional codes, consent, and confidentiality, as well as how to enforce boundaries and get the most out of fieldwork placement. 
• Understanding the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural components of a crisis, strategies for self-care, and the four facets of the community intervention approach. 

This course delves into the risks and resilience of diverse family groups. The family system is presented as both a microsystem and a homeostatic system, equipping students with the necessary skills to analyze various unhealthy family dynamics. Conceptual and practical information on critical issues and problems related to working with at-risk youth and families is covered. Topics include evaluating family roles, substance use disorders and their impact on families, and basic family therapy techniques.

What will you learn:

• Understand how gender, race and ethnicity influence families and family therapy and the family life cycle model.
• Know the history of family therapy, the influences of other guidance groups on family therapy, and ethical issues common to all.
• Explain the effectiveness of other practices, including but not limited to narrative therapy, sex therapy, and emotionally focused therapy, and how they contribute to family therapy.
• The benefits of family therapy when it comes to mental disorders and chronic illness.

Throughout this course, students will examine the Relapse Prevention (RP) model to understand the conceptual and clinical aspects of the RP approach. The ultimate goal is to help individuals alter excessive or addictive behaviour patterns. Students will analyze various intervention techniques for both proactive and reactive intervention, learn about the significance of abstinence and opioid substitution programs, and explore additional challenges that arise in substance abuse rehabilitation.

What will you learn:

• Describe various pharmacological approaches to help persons with substance-related disorders deal with withdrawal symptoms and maintain abstinence from alcohol, nicotine, opioids, cocaine and cannabis.
• Explain the difference between spirituality and religion and how each could benefit recovery, as well as identify the characteristics, mechanics and benefits of intervention.
• Identify the commonly encountered problems in treating individuals with SUDs, concerns with lapse and relapse, and the causes of deterioration as well as other concepts that help treat individuals with SUDs.
• Explain why focusing prevention efforts on young Canadians is necessary, the history of prevention programs and the changes that are being made currently.

Throughout this course, students acquire the fundamental abilities to conduct effective interviewing and counselling sessions. They will analyze the significance of ethics, values, and self-awareness, as well as the skills, processes, and potential challenges of counselling. Additionally, they will explore the evidence-based treatment approach for inspiring clients and review the Canadian health and social service structures that contribute to the unique Canadian Counseling environment.

What will you learn:

• Understand professional ethics, core values, limitations, and skill versatility required for counselling services in Canada.
• Overcome listening barriers, practice active listening, and strongly grasp non-verbal communication.
• Be able to negotiate various types of contracts, including relationship, anticipatory, and work contracts.
• Identify key variables for violence risk assessment and understand the importance of debriefing critical incidents for safety.
• Have a thorough understanding of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), including its structure, use, and limitations.
• Describe the characteristics of major mental disorders such as schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and personality disorders, as well as appropriate treatment options for each.

This course will introduce students to the foundational concepts and skills required for group facilitation. Students explore different stages of groups, group processes, and therapeutic forces, as well as the purpose of groups. Additionally, the course covers the introduction, conduction, and process of exercises, and how to engage group members in counselling and therapy sessions. 

What will you learn: 

• Identifying various types of group facilitations, the stages they proceed through, dynamics, therapeutic forces, clarity of purpose, the three evaluation models used to evaluate groups, and the four goals of closing final sessions. 
• Utilizing the nineteen subjects to consider in a first session, applying the thirteen specific leadership skills and the three models of co-leading, as well as holding, shifting, and deepening the focus of a group. 
• Recognizing the importance, procedures, and common reasons for cut-offs, common practices for round, dyad, and the advantages and disadvantages of triads, as well as various exercises, goals of those exercises, and when to best conduct them. 
• Understanding the importance, skills, techniques, and common mistakes of middle sessions. Describing the applications of rational emotive behaviour therapy, reality therapy, Adlerian therapy, gestalt therapy, and solution-focused therapy in groups, as well as the three stages of change. 

In this course, students delve into essential topics and processes involved in intake, assessment, and case management for effective service delivery. Through a combination of theoretical and practical approaches, students gain a comprehensive understanding of factors that impact critical areas and develop the skills needed to excel in real-world situations. 

There is a strong emphasis on hands-on learning, with students engaging in role-playing exercises, receiving feedback from instructors and peers, and other practical exercises that enable them to apply their learning in realistic contexts. By the end of the course, students are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to confidently conduct effective intake and assessments, as well as manage cases with sensitivity and professionalism. 

What will you learn: 

• Implement all three phases of case management (Assessment, Planning, Implementation) and be aware of working with diverse populations.
• Gain valuable skills for interviewing & data collection through case management with first-hand experience in plan changes.
• Learn about psychological reports, the DSM-5, social history & vocational evaluation. Make informed referrals & create a professional network.
• Understand the biopsychosocial model, differentiate screening vs assessment of substance use disorders & learn characteristics of working with SUDs. 

In this course, students will be introduced to the latest information on drug use and its effects on society and the individual. Students will examine drugs and drug use from various perspectives – behavioural, pharmacological, historical, social, legal, and clinical.

What will you learn:

• The differences between misuse, abuse and dependency and dependence, tolerance, and withdrawal concepts.
• The effects that different chemicals have on the brain and nervous system.
• Drug action and specific and nonspecific drug effects, including placebo, therapeutic effects, and side effects. Explain the history of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, from religious practices to pharmaceuticals.
• Identify the increase in concurrent disorders in Canada, emphasizing anxiety disorders, phobias, mood, and depressive disorders and the implication for pharmacotherapy.
• Summarize the chemical makeup, dangers, preparations, and controversy of alcohol, tobacco, and various drugs.

This course will give you a fundamental understanding of psychology and how it applies to your daily life. You will delve into the basics of neuroscience and behaviour, sensation and perception, motivation and emotion, and thinking and development. Additionally, this course provides a comprehensive overview of psychological disorders, including basic knowledge and treatment strategies.

What will you learn:

• Define psychology, its scope, goals, methods, and the different sub-fields associated with it. Name the techniques used to map the brain, key neurotransmitters and their functions, and the significant areas of the cerebral hemispheres.
• Explain consciousness and altered states of consciousness. Define and describe the significant principles of classical conditioning, including the neutral stimulus (NS), unconditioned stimulus (UCS), unconditioned response (UCR), conditioned stimulus (CS), and conditioned response (CR).
• Describe sensory memory, discuss the characteristics of short-term memory, and summarize the evidence for long-term memory as distinct from short-term memory. Explain the importance of understanding and diagnosing problems as the first step in effective problem-solving.
• Define health psychology and its centrally important concept of stress, including its biological and psychological costs. Describe the psychodynamic approach to the treatment.

This course provides students with the ability to provide support to high-risk populations in Canada. Throughout the course, students will be introduced to various techniques and strategies that will enable them to facilitate cross-cultural counselling effectively. You will also learn how to support clients exhibiting signs of substance misuse, focusing on understanding the unique challenges faced by individuals from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, the course emphasizes the importance of treating clients with respect and sensitivity when engaging them in different addiction treatments. Overall, this course prepares students to work effectively with individuals from high-risk populations and provides them with the necessary tools to make a positive impact in their lives.

What will you learn:

• Identify substance/alcohol misuse concerns during pregnancy, homelessness, military service and other communities.
• Understand SUDs concerns in children, adolescents, college students and older adults; identify screening and assessment tools and diagnostic considerations.
• Explain codependency, enabling, and concerns about infectious diseases, bacterial infections, and STIs in people with SUDs.
• Identify co-occurring disorders of SUDs and other mental illnesses and diagnostic challenges for accurate diagnosis and treatment of co-occurring disorders.

This course provides students with a hands-on learning experience to develop essential skills needed to succeed in today’s job market. Students improve their communication skills, which is crucial to the job application process. Throughout the course, students learn to plan, write, and complete an effective resume, search for employment opportunities, and enhance their presentation skills to secure gainful employment.

What will you learn:

• To improve job prospects, craft a strong résumé and create a compelling LinkedIn profile.
• Use the AIDA approach to write effective application letters.
• Understand the sequence of job interviews to prepare for them.

Designed to expand your knowledge of first aid, this course covers a range of essential topics such as Medical/Legal Aspects, Spinal Injuries, Environmental Emergencies, Bone and Joint Injuries, Abdominal and Chest Injuries, Burns, Respiratory Emergencies, and many others. You will also learn the life-saving techniques involved in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. Upon completion, you will be certified for a period of three years.

The Capstone project demonstrates the synthesis of information that students have acquired from their program and an application of the knowledge and skills that were developed. Writing a good Capstone project requires thorough research on completed courses and external research to answer the questions posed fully.

What you will learn:

• Outline the four pillars of the Canadian Drug and Substances strategy.
• Compare and contrast at-risk populations.