26th October 2007

This one day course is suitable for participants whose client base involves supporting people with alcohol use/misuse, or who come into contact with clients where alcohol use/misuse has to be taken into consideration and the practitioner has little or no knowledge of alcohol misuse. The course gives participants a good grounding of alcohol knowledge and covers a wide area of information with the objective of raising basic information and knowledge of alcohol.

The course philosophy is a harm reduction approach to a range of alcohol related issues, within an approach that is holistic and emphasises joined up working and user choice. The course uses experiential learning methods whilst acknowledging the principles of adult and lifelong learning, providing participants the opportunity to discuss, and where appropriate, practice skill based interventions.

Learning Objectives –

• Describe the current trends and prevalence of alcohol use in Scotland and relate to local prevalence
• Test and learn basic information about alcohol
• Gain an understanding of the impact alcohol can have physically, psychologically and socially
• Identify the reasons why people drink
• Understand the range of alcohol consumption patterns and definitions of problematic alcohol use
• Describe safer drinking messages and apply this to practice
• Practice how to discuss alcohol use/misuse with clients
• Learn harm reduction and brief intervention approaches and methods

Gain knowledge about service provision in your area and how to access these services