Addiction Counselor Exam Review Podcast
Hosted by Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes
Executive Director: AllCEUS.com Counselor Training
Unlimited CEUs $59 and Addiction Counselor Precertification Training $149
Objectives
• Examine the counselors function in providing client, family and community education
• Identify the benefits of outreach and education
• Identify qualities of effective education efforts
Client, family and community education
• Learning is defined as a change in behavior that can occur at any time or in any place as a result of exposure to environmental stimuli
• The teacher and learner jointly perform teaching and learning activities
• Counselors are often called upon to teach daily living skills to increase patients’ level of independence
• Health educators provide information to individuals and communities on a variety of important topics including biological, medical, and physical aspects of substance use, safety, HIV and STDs, nutrition, General Medical conditions, smoking, pregnancy, and mental health
• Success is measured not by how much content has been imparted but how much the person has learned
Client, family and community education
• Client family and community education is the process of providing client’s families, significant others and community groups with information on a variety of topics
• The role of educator encompasses many knowledge and skill sets such as
• understanding and applying the principles of learning theory
• using specific teaching skills to accommodate individual learning styles
• making adaptations for culture, age and linguistic ability among learners
• Educational groups help engage the client in treatment and recovery and is much less threatening because it is easier to learn than to change
Client, family and community education
• Characteristics of adult learners
• They are engaged in multiple roles
• They have more life experiences
• They need a safe environment in which they do not have to be afraid of being wrong
• They're self directed and don’t want to be spoon fed
• They are relevancy oriented
• Their problem solvers and want to know how new information can be applied in a practical setting
• They need to feel part of a learning community which provides both encouragement and serves as a sounding board for ideas, anxieties, and concerns
• Adults are motivated to learn
• In order to cope with specific life changing events
• Because they have a use for the knowledge or skill being sought
Effective education efforts
• Education is provided in a variety of ways including formal classes, handouts and informal meetings
• Print electronic and other multimedia educational materials have become increasingly available
• A client education program must be sensitive to the following:
• Characteristics and needs of the client, their family, and significant others
• Physical/environmental
• Time/scheduling
• Cognitive/learning abilities
• Language
• Cultural
Effective education efforts
• Educational sessions are typically offered in 60 to 90 minute blocks
• Sessions usually consist of a lecture, an exercise, and are presented with media supplements
• Educational topics include:
• Addiction as a Biopsychosocial disease
• The recovery process
• Life skills
• Health
• Relapse warning signs and triggers
• Resources available for clients family’s and community members
• Recovery planning
Effective education efforts continued
• Learning styles
• Each learner absorbs and retains information differently
• A learning style is the primary way person tends to learn and can be auditory, visual, or kinesthetic
• Challenges to learning
• Learning and memory deficits attributable to substance use
• Consideration should be given to the teaching approach used and the amount of information given at any one time
• The matrix model of outpatient treatment illustrates an approach that recognizes impairments and delivers information to the client accordingly
• Progress is gradual
• The focus is on the present
• Court issues are not immediately addressed
• Complex information is provided in smaller units and presented in steps
Effective education efforts continued
• Challenges to learning
• The age of the learner
• Older learners may experience a decline in vision, hearing, short term memory skills, and reaction time
• Moderate the pace of the presentation
• Have both visual and auditory formats
• Look for nonverbal signs of confusion
• Provide enough time to complete assignments
• Provide enough time to complete psychomotor tasks
Effective education efforts continued
• Challenges to learning
• The age of the learner
• Younger learners may not have the same level of cognitive, emotional or social development, nor the attention span.
• Moderate the pace of the presentation and chunk it
• Use developmentally appropriate materials and activities
• Have both visual/pictorial and auditory formats
• Look for nonverbal signs of confusion and boredom
• Make activities interactive and encourage participation
• Provide enough time to complete psychomotor tasks (coloring a picture)
Effective education efforts continued
• Teaching strategies, Dale’s cone of experience
• Adults generally remember:
• 90% of what they do
• 70% of what they say and write
• 50% of what they hear and see
• 30% of what they see alone
• 20% of what they hear
• 10% of what they read
Effective education efforts continued
• Teaching from a multicultural perspective recognizes that there’s a classroom of learners who vary according to their social and cultural characteristics
• Culturally responsive teaching
• Is defined by how the educator develops teaching approaches to address the cultural knowledge, prior experiences and performance styles of diverse students
• Acknowledges the legitimacy of the cultural heritage of different ethnic groups
• Builds bridges of meaningfulness between social and learning experiences
• Uses a wide variety of instructional techniques that are connected to different learning styles
• Teaches students to know and embrace their own and each other’s cultural heritages
• Incorporates multicultural information, resources and materials in the subjects and skills
• Diversity And Motivation: Culturally Responsive Teaching is a text that provides specific culturally responsive teaching strategies
Effective education efforts continued
• Culturally responsive teaching guidelines:
• Communicate respect
• Give yourself permission to feel uncomfortable with a culture that is new to you
• Develop listening skills
• Never be shy about asking if you’re being understood or asking for the client’s cultural perspectives. “How is this viewed or approached in your culture?”
• For more information on cultural competence, view the videos Improving Cultural Competence Parts 1, 2 & 3 on our YouTube channel. https:Allceus.com/youtube
Effective education efforts continued
• Psychoeducation
• Is health education combined with behavioral counseling
• The counseling component of psychoeducation deals with emotions or perceptions, coping, relaxation and self care
• It teaches people about their problems, how to treat them and recognize signs of relapse
• It teaches coping strategies and problem solving skills to families, friends, and or caregivers to help them deal more effectively with the individual
• Typically consists of a highly structured format providing problem-focused or skill building education in one or 2 hour time limited groups
• There is opportunity for discussion of the presented material but there’s very little true processing of personal issues
• Groups are not a good option for people who are unable to maintain confidentiality, people who continue to engage in antisocial behaviors and people who are not motivated to participate in treatment
Effective education efforts continued
• Psychoeducation
• Counseling groups have more ambiguity, emphasize emotions and learning outcomes are individualistic not for the group as a whole
• Effective psychosocial educational interventions need to contain elements of
• Practicality
• Concrete problem solving
• Incremental shaping of social an independent living skills
• Specific attainable goals
• Benefits derived from psychoeducation include mastery experiences and increased levels of empowerment
• Psychoeducation strategies enhance a person’s sense of dignity and self esteem due to the increased responsibility for self care and levels of trust placed in his or her hands
• Psychoeducation increases in individual’s resilience to distress, coping skills, ability to comprehend and manage life, and their sense of meaning in life
Effective education efforts continued
• Delivering Psychoeducation
• Facilitators are responsible for fostering the following goals
• Information transfer
• Emotional discharge
• Support of a medication or other treatment regimen
• Assistance towards self help
• Family psychoeducational groups help family members prevent the individual with the substance use or co-occurring disorder from relapsing and provides them with information they need and the coping skills that will help them with their loved ones disorder.
• Associated goal is support for the client’s family’s burdens including financial, social and psychological in dealing with a loved one’s substance abuse issues
Summary
• Counselors function in providing client, family and community education to aid in prevention, early intervention and post-treatment transition.
• Outreach and education are cost effective and can be provided in a variety of places within the community.
• Effective education efforts are developmentally appropriate, culturally responsive, presented continuously throughout the continuum of services and designed to provide practical information to clients, their significant others and community members