APA CITATION AND REFERANCES
Respond to at least two colleagues in one of the following ways:
- Explain how the knowledge your peer gained in the course will benefit their future work with clients with substance use disorders.
- Suggest a strategy, resource, or organization that would help your colleague build knowledge and awareness in preparation for working with this population.
1-NANCY-
Think back to Week 1 and your initial attitudes toward people with substance use disorders and your interest in working with this client population. What have you learned during the past 11 weeks that has impacted your attitudes and beliefs? How would you currently describe your interest in working with this population of clients in a substance-focused setting or in other social work settings?
Use this final Discussion to reflect on the new knowledge you have gained and evaluate your personal interest and readiness to work with clients with substance use disorders in your future career.
I enjoyed this class and all the new things that I have learned about substance use disorders. During this course I learned about the neurochemical changes in the brain caused by substance use and has helped me see addiction as a disease process, not a moral failing, leading to a more compassionate approach.
I also learned that recognizing how trauma and mental health issues frequently co-occur with substance use disorders broadened my perspective on the complexities individuals face, emphasizing the need for holistic treatment approaches.
I also learned how trauma and mental health issues frequently co-occur with substance use disorders broadened my perspective on the complexities individuals face, emphasizing the need for holistic treatment approaches. I have worked with clients that had both mental health and substance use disorders. I enjoyed working with them and helping them on their recovery journey.
2-RACHELLE-
Throughout the time in this course I learned more than I thought. I learned more about the history of druse misuse, and use. I did not know that the opioid epidemic has lasted such a long time (Walden University, 2023) . I will also take away what we learned about how drugs affect our brains, this was new knowledge to me and I think very important to talk about with families, as well as people who are diagnosed with a substance use disorder.
I would like to learn more about different treatment courses, I know about AA, and NA, the Harm reduction model, though I want to know if there is any others. I want to dig deeper into harm reduction and learn more about it, where it came from and why it has been so good helping people.
I am very interested in working with people who struggle with substance use as well as mental health, in my current job I work with co occurring disorders and I want to keep working within the population. I have lost people close to me that are going through substance use and I would like to try to help someone to get through recovery of substance use disorder.
I think additional skills or knowledge I would like to acquire to prepare myself is making sure I am not overly sharing my story, I typically do well though I could see myself getting very passionate about the issue and want to help how ever I can. I would need to really work on my own self care skills to be able to help someone. I would like to continue education on what the best practices are as McCarthy et al, 2022 stated that Social workers need to know of the “most generally accepted and scientifically supported models of treatment recovery, relapse prevention and continuing care for addiction” (pg 48). I would like to continue my education by taking more classes that can provide me with the skills and education I need to help people with substance use disorder.
Thanks again for such a great class, and all of my classmates who had really great discussion posts