Welcome to Screening for Substance Use Disorders in Primary Care (SSUDPC). The SSUDPC course teaches about the screening, basics of treatment, and prevention of substance use disorders related to alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. SSUDPC provides an introduction to the health consequences associated with substance use disorders and the links between substance use disorders and mental health disorders. Additionally, students will gain practical knowledge on how to communicate with patients, conduct a medical consultation, screen for substance use disorders, monitor treatment effects, and decide when to refer their patients to specialized settings.
This course can be used to train students about screening and referring persons with substance use issues to professionals with further education in substance use interventions, such as the NextGenU.org Substance Use Disorders in Primary Care course (which provides more detailed information about how to intervene when alcohol, tobacco, or other substance use problem has been identified).
This SSUDPC course is sponsored by the Africa Mental Health Foundation, the University of Florida. Like all courses on the NextGenU.org platform, it is competency-based, using competencies adapted from the WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) and learning resources from accredited, world-class organizations such as the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA), the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the World Medical Association, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the World Health Organization.
The course was initially co-developed by Veronic Clair, MD, MSc, CCFP, FRCPC; Sukhdeep Jassar, MPH; and Abednego Musau, MBChB. The course was redesigned and updated by Pablo Baldiviezo, MD, DiplEd; Carolina Bustillos, MD, DiplEd; Genikka Camille Gabral, B.ED, MSc; Magali Collonnaz, MD, MPH, MSc; Felix Emeka Anyiam, MPH, MScPH, DataSc.; Yhan O'Neil Williams, BSc, Ph.D.; Hugo Rojas, MD, MSc, DiplEd;
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There are six (6) modules to complete, which provide an introduction to:
- Introduction to Substance Use Disorders in Primary Care
- Addressing Stigma and Protecting Human Rights
- Screening for Substance Use Disorders
- Other Information on Substance Use Disorders, Screening, and Intervention
- Urgent Situations and Co-morbidities with Substance Use Disorders
- Communication with People Seeking Care, their Caregivers, and Family
The completion time for this course is estimated at 91 hours, comprising 16 hours of learning resources, 32 hours of studying and assimilating content, and 43 hours of participating in learning activities and quizzes, to assist the learners in the synthesis of learning materials. This course is equivalent to 2 credit hours.
The course requires completion of Discussion Forums, Peer Activities, and Quizzes to receive a course certificate. At the end of each module, there is a practice quiz of 10 multiple-choice questions. After you've completed each module, quiz, and learning activity, at the end of the course, you'll have access to a final exam consisting of 50 multiple-choice questions and a chance to evaluate this course. Participants have up to three opportunities to take the final exam and achieve the required passing score of >=70%. Once you've passed the last final exam and completed the evaluations, you will be able to download a certificate of completion from NextGenU.org and our course's co-sponsoring organizations. We keep your personal information confidential, never sell any of your information, and only use anonymized data for research purposes. Also, we are happy to report your testing information and share your work with anyone (your school, employer, etc.) at your request.
Engaging with this Course:
You may browse this course for free to learn for your personal enrichment; there are no requirements. To register for this course, it is a requirement that learners have a college-level/bachelor's degree.
To obtain a certificate, a learner must first register for the course and then successfully complete:
- Pre-test,
- All the reading requirements,
- All quizzes and pass with a 70% with unlimited attempts,
- All peer activities,
- All discussion forums,
- The final exam with a minimum of 70% and a maximum of 3 attempts, and
- The self and course evaluation forms.
To obtain credit:
- Complete all requirements listed above for the certificate, and
- Your learning institution or workplace should approve the partner-university-sponsored NextGenU.org course for educational credit, as they would for their learner taking a course anywhere.
NextGenU.org is happy to provide your institution with:
- A link to the description of the course training, so they can see all its components, including the co-sponsoring institutions,
- Your grade on the final exam,
- Your work products (e.g., discussion forums responses) and any other required or optional shared materials that you produce and authorize to share with them,
- Your evaluations -- course, and self-assessments, and
- A copy of your certificate of completion, with the co-sponsoring universities and other organizations listed.
To obtain a degree, NextGenU.org co-sponsors degree programs with institutional partners. To obtain a full degree co-sponsored with NextGenU.org, registrants must be enrolled in a degree program as a student of a NextGenU.org institutional partner. If you think your institution might be interested in offering a degree with NextGenU.org, contact us.
We hope you will find this a rewarding learning experience, and we count on your assessment and feedback to help us improve this training for future students.
Here are the next steps to take the course and earn a certificate.
- Complete the registration form.
- Take the pre-test.
- Begin the course with Module 1: Introduction to Substance Use Disorders in Primary Care. In each module, read the description, complete all required readings and any required activity, and take the corresponding quizzes.
This course meets nationally approved standards of education developed for the addiction/substance use disorders counseling profession. This course's participants are assured that the continuing education (CE) credits provided will be accepted toward national credentialing by the NAADAC Certification Commission for Addiction Professionals (NCC AP), as well as by many of the individual state licensing/certification bodies in the addiction and other helping professions.
*The previous version of this course is also available here for your reference but is not available for registration. Only students that were registered before can complete it.