Training Workshops

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will be training policymakers in the nature, prevention, and treatment of drug use disorders. The training targets decision makers working in the areas of health care, social welfare, education and prevention, anti-drug authority, anti-drug law enforcement and penitentiary institutions, offering a fresh and updated body of information to be utilized as they design and supervise drug demand reduction activities, or as they actively participate in well-coordinated inter-ministerial strategies focusing on drug demand reduction and improved health care.  The program offers policymakers updated information based on scientific evidence, as well as many decades of prevention and clinical experience. This programme outlines effective and cost-effective national drug demand reduction policies and strategies.

The Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the Organisation of American States will deliver a four and a half day Training for Treating Adolescents with Substance Use Disorders. The target audience for the training will be drug treatment providers serving high risk or substance-using adolescents. The training objective is to provide a deeper understanding of adolescent substance use, the factors that influence such use and provide the participants with skills to deliver better interventions for young people.

This course covers the following four modules:

• Module 1: Adolescents and Substance Abuse
• Module 2: Screening and Assessing Adolescents
• Module 3: Adolescent Drug Treatment
• Module 4: Family Interventions

Among the topics to be covered will be adolescent development and its relevance to substance use, risk and protective factors, appropriate screening and assessing techniques, a special look at adolescents in conflict with the law, issues of trauma for young people as well as components and models for adolescent substance use treatment and family interventions.

This curriculum is designed to provide essential prevention knowledge to decision, opinion, and policy makers in Europe about the most effective evidence-based prevention interventions and approaches. This group includes prevention coordinators, prevention specialists, or policy makers with both general and specialist roles with responsibility for prevention programmes. They can be located at the community, region, or country level. The EUPC has a specific focus on this group because of the key role they can play in influencing the development of prevention systems. They can encourage and emphasise the importance of prevention work in society, and influence prevention cultures and activities in their region and among their communities.

This curriculum provides decision, opinion and policy makers working in the prevention field in Europe with:

• An introduction to the foundations of prevention science
• An overview of the information needed to inform the selection and implementation of prevention interventions
• The tools to inform stakeholders about the foundations of evidence-based substance use prevention
• The tools to coordinate the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based interventions
• An introduction into family-, school-, workplace-, community-, environment- and media-based prevention principles and practices

The CHILD Curriculum provides treatment providers with the tools they need to identify, assess, and treat children with substance use disorders (SUDs) using age-appropriate interventions and methodologies. This training is geared towards professionals who have some experience working with children to prevent or treat substance use problems.

Introduction to the Universal Prevention Curriculum Series for Implementers. This course provides an overview of the science that underlies evidence-based prevention interventions and policies along with introductory skills and competencies to engage in prevention practice in the primary contexts where provision takes place.

This course provides an overview of the science underlying the use of media for substance use prevention interventions. This curriculum series is designed to provide extensive foundational knowledge to prevention coordinators about the most effective evidence-based prevention interventions that are currently available. Training goals:

• To provide an overview and in-depth study of media and their use in substance use prevention campaigns
• To provide a comprehensive overview of persuasion theory
• To facilitate understanding of how to develop theory-based persuasive anti-drug media campaigns
• To provide insight into what makes an effective vs. an ineffective media campaign
• To provide a framework for participants to develop and evaluate their own effective media campaigns to prevent substance use

This course provides an overview of the family as the primary socialisation agent of children, the science behind family-based prevention interventions, and the application of such evidence-based approaches to help prevent the onset of substance use in children. This curriculum series is designed to provide extensive foundational knowledge to prevention coordinators about the most effective evidence-based prevention interventions that are currently available. Training goals:

• To provide an overview of the role of the family in human development across the lifespan
• To provide an overview of the role of the family in the prevention of drug use
• To provide an overview of the principles and key components of evidence-based family preventive interventions
• To describe processes for adapting programmes to different cultural contexts

This course provides an overview of the role of the school in society, the science behind school-based prevention interventions, and the application of such evidence-based approaches in school settings around the world. This curriculum series is designed to provide extensive foundational knowledge to prevention coordinators about the most effective evidence-based prevention interventions that are currently available. Training goals: 

• To provide an overview of the opportunities that schools provide for drug prevention
• To develop participants' understanding of matching students' developmental stages to prevention programs and strategies
• To assist participants in getting started in schools
• To provide an overview of the principles of effective and ineffective prevention practice in school settings - of what works and what does not work
• To teach participants how to negotiate registries of evidence-based practice and select the prevention curriculum that is right for their school
• To provide an overview of issues pertaining to implementation fidelity and adaptation
• To develop participants' understanding of effective drug prevention policies and whole school prevention programs

This interactive workshop will review the impacts of substance abuse on the workplace and discuss how drug free workplace programmes can improve employee and employer health and wellness. Participants will learn the key components of a model drug free workplace programme and develop strategies on how to implement or enhance programmes in their communities. The workshop will have an emphasis on alcohol, marijuana and opioid use as it relates to workplace impacts and demonstrates how promoting treatment and recovery can benefit both the employer and employee. This training is designed for business owners, healthcare administrators, policy makers, human resource professionals, and substance abuse treatment and prevention professionals who are looking to expand their resource capacity.

This course focuses on an overview of the helping relationship and the opportunity to practice core counselling including basic skills in motivational interviewing, group counselling and implementation of psychoeducation sessions. Training goals:

• To provide an opportunity for participants to learn and practice basic skills they will need in all settings and models of treatment
• To teach and provide an opportunity for participants to practice basic group counselling skills

This course provides an in-depth understanding of the theory and application of Motivational Interviewing (MI) strategies and interventions for substance use disorder treatment. Participants who complete this course will be able to:

• Develop an understanding of the theory and key principles of Motivational Interviewing
• Increase competence in the application of MI strategies
• Recognise and use MI in substance use disorders treatment settings

This skills-based course is meant to enhance understanding of the theories of counselling and the application of its therapeutic techniques in substance use disorder treatment.

Throughout the Western Hemisphere, Africa, Central and Southeast Asia the drug prevention community coalition movement has become its own unique model in over 20 countries. This community problem solving approach is designed to create partnerships between local governments and civil society through the community coalition construct capable of preventing substance misuse. This training session teaches the basic concepts of community mobilisation and civic engagement needed to develop an effective drug prevention community coalition. Participants will also learn the essential competencies and skills necessary to help create a safer, healthier culture needed to bring about reductions – at the community level – in substance misuse rates through individual and environmental behavioural change strategies.

In summary the training session involves two parallel processes:

1. Providing local communities with evidence-based strategies to achieve population-level reductions in substance misuse rates.
2. Enabling and empowering local communities with the tools to develop the necessary social capital needed to solve their own problems through civic engagement.

This training workshop is useful for healthcare professionals as well as all those who have an interest in substance use in pregnancy.

The World Health Organization will conduct a comprehensive 2-day training workshop based on the relevant WHO guidelines for medical doctors, clinical psychologists, nurses and other health professionals working in antenatal, primary care and specialized services for mental and substance use disorders and interested in improving their knowledge on prevention, identification and management of substance use and substance use disorders in pregnancy.

This course will cover six core modules:

• Health risks associated with substance use during pregnancy;
• Overview of WHO Guidelines and Tool for clinicians on the identification and management of substance use and substance use disorders in pregnancy;
• Identification of substance use and substance use disorders during pregnancy;
• Clinical management of substance use and substance use disorders during pregnancy;
• Supportive environment and protection from second-hand smoking;
• Care of newborn.

The Refresher Course acts like a study guide and provides a review of the material presented in the Complete Universal Treatment Curriculum series to prepare candidates for taking the exam. Professionals in the Drug Demand Reduction field who meet the criteria for Global Centre for Credentialing and Certification (GCCC) Examinations will have the opportunity to take the exam on Friday, July 5, 2019 at the conference in Vienna. If you have any questions about the refresher course or examination, please contact Samitha Gunasekera at samitha [dot] gunasekera [at] colomboplan [dot] org

Please click here for more information on exam requirements and criteria.

This course is appropriate for master level therapists/counselors and can also be useful for case workers, peer recovery support specialists and other direct care staff.

Workshop times: Tuesday 9am–5pm and Wednesday 9am–3pm

Learn more about the developed and evaluated multi-component, multi-media tool for use by addiction and other helping professionals to assist adults and youth improve their life traumas and conflict through knowledge, attitudes and skills developed in the frontal cortex of the brain. Rein in Your Brain are an intensive set of psycho-emotional-social-spiritual Cogitative Behavioral Therapy (CBT) treatments that, if followed, will result in brain pathway and lifestyle changes.  This program affects behavioral learning with emotional development and maturity that results in long-term changes in the brain and behavior. This training will be a short introduction into the foundational pieces of the curriculum focusing on the brain and its development in addiction and conflict, methods to change the neuropathways in the brain and reduce conflict with self and others.