Graduates from Community Addiction Studies course
GRADUATES of the Community Addiction Studies Course (CASC) were presented with their certificates on the 8th November in the Crowne Plaza Dundalk.
Certificates were presented by Jim Mullery, Chairperson of the North Eastern Regional Drug & Alcohol Task Force.
Jim paid tribute to the hard work and commitment of the group to strengthen the capacity of our community to respond to addiction begins with understanding the process of addiction and the capacity for change and recovery. Jim paid tribute to the CASC group who took up this challenge to learn and understand.
The Community Addiction Studies Course CASCÓ is for people living or working in local communities who wish to be more effective when dealing with drug and alcohol issues. It is a part-time evening course developed by URRUS, a Ballymun Youth Action Project, the programme is QQI Fetac Level 5 accredited. The course runs for 20 weeks for 3 hours per week plus one Saturday.
Course participants receive training in the following areas:
• Facts on types and effects of drugs.
• Factors which impact on drug use
• Understanding community structure
• Individual progression to problem drug use
• Process of addiction
• Wheel of Change (pre-con- templation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, termination/recycling/ relapse)
• Family dynamics
• Family effects and enabling behaviour
• Community response to addiction and context
• Agency visit
• Presentation from an addiction service
• Understanding crisis and intervention.
The course proved enormously popular and participants would acknowledge that it greatly resourced them to have a much broader understanding of the complexities of the drugs issue and built their capacity and that of the communities they represented to respond to these issues
It is established that the complex problem of substance misuse will not be resolved by any single agency. This collaborative approach between the different agencies with the sharing of skills and ideas between all sectors provides an excellent example of how much more effective we can be when we work together to meet these challenges.
The next Community Addiction Studies course will begin in January 2019 and interviews will be held in December if you are interested please contact: Mr David Griffin, Tel: 046 9248630 or you can email: info@nedrugtaskforce.ie