Postgraduate - UnitASC5004 - Addiction assessment and treatment: practice and innovation

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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12 points, SCA Band 2, 0.250 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational Unit	Eastern Health Clinical School
Offered	Clayton Second semester 2015 (Online)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Victoria Manning and Dr Shalini Arunogiri

Synopsis

This unit explores the range of evidence based treatment approaches to addiction from pharmacotherapy approaches such as withdrawal management to psychosocial interventions like Cognitive Behavioural Therapies, and social solutions such as peer support. Students will be provided with a rationale for alcohol, drug and gambling treatment and an overview of the effectiveness of a range of treatment interventions for alcohol, licit and illicit drugs and for gambling. They will consider the evidence about what works, for whom, in what situations.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

Describe and critique the biopsychosocial framework for AOD assessment and demonstrate how this can be applied to specialist populations.
Demonstrate an understanding of the primary harm reduction strategies applied across the AOD sector and critique the role of such strategies.
Critically evaluate the evidence for mutual aid and peer-based models of aftercare and recovery.
Present a detailed outline of how multiple modes of treatment, including individual, residential and group treatments, can be effectively implemented in a service setting.
Demonstrate a working knowledge of prominent cognitive oriented treatments including CBT, Mindfulness, ACT and MI.
Review the primary pharmacotherapy applications, including withdrawal practises, in accordance with current Australian guidelines.
Provide a critical review of Australian electronic treatment options for addictions.

Assessment

Participation in online discussion (Hurdle)
Literature review (3,000 words) (30%)
Critical essay (3,000 words) (30%)
Case study (5,000 words) (40%)

Workload requirements

Students enrolling in ASC5004 will be expected to contact the course co-ordinator regularly throughout the semester and participate in online discussion with fellow students and academic staff. Together with accessing online resources and listening to podcasts etc. students might expect to spend around 4 hours a week online and an additional 20 hours per week in independent study, including reading, research and writing activities.

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Victoria Manning

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Behavioural studies, Psychology, Mental health, Addiction studies.

Prerequisites

ASC5001 (only to apply to students enrolled in course 4519). Students enrolled in course 0099 do not need to complete ASC5001.