The long term objective of the Alcohol Education program (ADEP) for Social Work Faculty is to promote the use of empirically-supported alcohol and other drugs (AOD) identification and treatment methods among social workers which is consistent with the NIAAA goal to promote the use of research to treat and prevent AOD abuse and dependence. A major component of ADEP is the Social Work (SW) Immersion Faculty Training (SWIFT) program which will train100 SW faculty, all from accredited SW schools (208), to educate SW graduate students about empirically-supported AOD identification and treatment methods and to integrate these topics into their school's curriculum.
The Aims of this program are: 1. Implementation of SWIFT will increase: (1a) participants' (SW faculty) own knowledge of empirically-supported AOD identification and treatment methods and self-efficacy in teaching about these issues; (1b) participants' (SW faculty) inclusion of current and accurate content and materials on empirically-supported AOD identification and treatment methods in their courses and in the curricula of their schools; and, (1c) Master's level graduate students' knowledge and skills of empirically-supported AOD identification and treatment methods among students enrolled in the courses of SW faculty who attended the SWIFT program and developed new curriculum content. The ADEP program is an adaptation of an NIDA-funded training model used at the Boston University (BU) School of Medicine (MED) to train Chief Residents to disseminate AOD knowledge and skills to physicians nationwide. This effort has been ongoing for 10 years, has been evaluated and shown to be effective (Alford et al., 2009). A second component of ADEP is that it uses and improves on the mixed- methods outcome evaluation design from the BU-MED program. Strengths of the evaluation include (a) randomization of faculty into intervention/control groups, (b) 45 pre-post case-studies/ multiple choice items to assess change in knowledge, (c) 38 Likert scale measures to examine baseline, 6 and 12 month follow-up changes in knowledge of AOD identification and treatment methods and teaching behaviors, (d) pre-posttests of student knowledge and skills, and, (e) content analysis to examine syllabi changes. Guiding all aspects of the program will be AOD Expert Teaching Faculty and an interdisciplinary Advisory Committee with experience in implementing NIAAA and NIDA R25 programs; directing evaluations and disseminating findings from AOD educational programs; developing AOD curricula; collaborating with the PIs on prior AOD education, evaluation and research efforts; and disseminating research findings and teaching SW clinical practice.
This project responds to the urgent need for health professionals, including social workers, to be trained in empirically-supported alcohol and other drugs (AOD) identification and intervention methods. Improved education, skills training and access to new research on empirically-supported AOD identification and treatment methods for social workers nationwide will improve both early intervention and treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs).
