Mental Health and Substance Use

Course description

In this course we will examine substance use and mental health as they relate to working in the homelessness serving sector. While it is important to remember that not all people who experience homelessness have mental health struggles or use substances, we will explore the potential interconnectedness between these experiences.

Learning objectives

Upon completion of this workshop you will be able to:

• Describe a public health approach to substance use and explain overdose prevention and harm reductions as aspects of that approach.
• Use destigmatizing language to refer to people who use substances
• Describe mental health based on the mental health literacy pyramid model
• Describe the interconnection between substance use, mental health and homelessness.
• Apply anti-oppressive techniques for de-escalating hostile interactions