622 Substance Use Disorders Among Older Adults

The Addiction Technology Transfer Center of New England , funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) at Brown University Center for Alcohol & Addiction Studies, is offering a credited, on-line course on elderly substance abuse.

When we think of alcohol or other drug abuse we usually think of adolescents and young adults, but awareness is growing that the elderly also suffer from abuse of alcohol and other drugs. A significant percentage of the population aged sixty-five and older suffers from a problem involving alcohol or other drug abuse. Such older substance abusers place even greater burdens on the health care system than do younger abusers, yet less attention is focused on their needs. This course will introduce the student to what is known about these problems in older adults. Topics to be addressed will include the epidemiology of substance abuse in the elderly, early onset versus late onset problems, issues in screening and assessment, treatment issues and approaches and barriers to treating the older substance abuser.

Instructor

David F. Duncan, Dr. P.H. is President of Duncan & Associates, a consulting firm providing consultation on research design and data collection for behavioral and policy studies. His education included an undergraduate major in psychology, with minors in sociology and education at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and graduate work in criminology at Sam Houston State University in Texas. He earned the degree of Doctor of Public Health from the University of Texas at Houston with an interdisciplinary program in behavioral sciences, epidemiology, biostatistics, and program and policy evaluation. Dr. Duncan completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in alcohol treatment and early intervention research at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University. He has over thirty year’s experience in the substance abuse field, including direct service provision and direction of treatment and rehabilitation services.

Course Objectives

• Describe the epidemiology of alcohol and other drug abuse among older adults.
• Define the three types of older adult alcoholics.
• Discuss problems in screening for alcohol and other drug among the elderly, the barriers which frequently prevent older adult substance abusers being identified and referred for treatment, the problems and issues in providing treatment to older adult substance abusers.
• Develop a plan for identifying older adults in need of substance abuse treatment.
• Develop an appropriate treatment plan for an older adult substance abuser.

Course Requirements

This is a five-week course, beginning on June 11, 2012. Requirements are:

• Required on-line reading (one hour per week)
• Completion of pre and post test
• Completion of weekly homework assignments (one hour per week)
• Participation in the weekly course forum
• Completion of an on-line course evaluation

*Please note that there are no real time events associated with this course. Lessons will be posted on the class home page on Tuesday and responses are due the following Monday. With the exception of the first weeks lesson which will be posted Monday with the responses due the following Monday. Assignments can be accessed at the participant’s convenience.

A full refund is available up until June 19, 2012 after which there will be no refunds.

Accreditation

$60.00 Certification

• This five-week course, which begins on June 11, 2012, has been approved by the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC) for 10 educational credits. It is being provided by the Brown Distance Learning program, which is accredited as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider (#000151).
• This course is approved by the Connecticut Certification Board (CCB) for 10 Category 1 continuing education for Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselors (CADC’s). The CCB is an IC&RC affiliate.
• The New York State OASAS does accept distance learning CEUs provided by institutions of higher learning for individuals pursuing or renewing a CASAC, CPP or CPS.

• ATTC of New England DLP is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP ™) and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements. The ACEP solely is responsible for all aspects of the program. (provider # 6463) 3 clock hours will be provided for this event.

*Combined certificates are available upon request.

Certificates will be immediately printable from the course homepage to participants in the program for its duration who submit all required materials.

Please contact your local certification board to verify reciprocity or acceptance of The ATTC of New England’s Distance Learning contact hours.

To participate, you must have:

• An E-mail address and the capacity to retrieve and send E-mail;
• Access to World Wide Web (the following programs provide WWW access: Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Explorer)
• Internet Explorer 7.0 or higher is the preferred browser for ATTC of New England DLP online courses
• The ability to navigate the World Wide Web
• A basic understanding of how to use a computer and send and receive email

PLEASE NOTE NETWORK AND COMPUTER TECHNICAL SUPPORT WILL NOT BE PROVIDED.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: June 04, 2012 or when the course limit is reached.

To register for this course please log into your account or create your account then log into your account and click the Enroll in a New Course link at the bottom of your account page (have your credit card ready). On the Enrollment page select ‘622 Elderly Substance Abuse’ using the left pull down menu. Use the right pull down menu to select the type of certificate you wish to receive. Once both the course and certificate type have been selected click the Enroll and Pay button. Complete your payment by filling in all required fields and following all on screen prompts. Once your payment has been processed your registration has been concluded. To register using alternate forms of payment (check, money order, or invoice) contact [email protected] for registration processing. To view payment information please use the payment policies.

For a list of current ATTC of New England Distance Learning courses, please go to the following site:

https://www.browndlp.org/.

Please Bookmark this site for future references. Course announcements will be made via the ATTC of New England Online Course Announcement Listserve 6-8 weeks prior to the start of each course. If you would like to be subscribed to this list, please contact the ATTC of New England DLP at [email protected]