Substance use disorders are chronic conditions that can impact the lives of any person regardless of ethnicity, race, culture, religious preference, sexuality, gender or any other individual or group factor. Learning how to approach each individual who asks us for help with humility and a willingness to accept those individual differences is crucial to provide effective treatment for successful outcomes.  This training will help participants define cultural humility and begin to raise awareness of cultural factors that can have an impact on treatment retention and outcomes.

This training shall provide a general overview of ASAM as well as instruction related to the proper utilization of the ASAM criteria for appropriate patient placement.  It will also discuss utilizing ASAM criteria to determine the appropriate treatment of patients based upon their level of care.  The emphasis throughout the ASAM training series will be the use of the ASAM Criteria as a tool for initial client placement and ongoing services at a given level of care.  This training will also address the role of ASAM in medical necessity and treatment planning.

This interactive training provides participants with a detailed overview of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and relapse prevention (RP) strategies.  The training is broken into three parts. Part I focuses on the underlying principles of CBT and RP, including an introduction to CBT and RP and how the behavioral interventions are used in the treatment of substance use disorders. Part II focuses on the specific elements of CBT, including the trigger-thought-craving-use sequence; identifying triggers in high- and low- risk situations; the neurobiological understanding of cravings; drug refusal skills; abstinence violation syndrome; and cognitive reframing. Lastly, Part III focuses on instructing participants on methods for using CBT strategies, including explanation of treatment provider role/style in facilitating CBT sessions; how to conduct group and individual CBT sessions; principles of using CBT (e.g., repetition, practice, rationale, scripts, etc.); creating a daily recovery plan; and how to handle relapse and conduct a relapse analysis and 24-hour behavioral plan with a client.  All three parts of the daylong training will include trainer demonstrations and, group discussions.

This training will provide background information on the consequences of substances commonly used and will introduce participants to the epidemiology and prevalence, and neurobiology of co-occurring disorders. Participants will also learn about screening, assessment and diagnosis of co-occurring disorders, and how to develop behavioral intervention strategies for those with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders and chronic medical conditions that frequently co-occur with substance use and mental health issues. The training will also cover treatment considerations, planning, and an overview of evidence based practice interventions.

This training provides a general introduction to the ethical and confidentiality issues associated with the provision of treatment for substance use disorders.  Participants will learn about confidential and privileged communication between behavioral health providers, clients and outside agencies.

This training will provide information on the pharmacology and effective intervention and treatment of marijuana abuse, how it works, who tends to use it, and its acute and chronic effects. Information on how marijuana is used as a medicine and the legal questions surrounding medical marijuana is also discussed. Specific strategies that clinicians can utilize to communicate effectively with clients who are either using marijuana for medical or recreational purposes or considering its use will also be discussed.

This full-day training provides a detailed overview of medications that have been shown to be effective as a component of the treatment of alcohol and opioid use disorders. Topics include: the context for medications for addiction treatment (positive and negative perceptions), the epidemiology of alcohol and opioid use and dependence (user demographics), a review of the various classes of opioids, an overview of each medication, its indication, to whom it is administered, and how it works, and treatment settings for medication-assisted treatment.

Motivational interviewing, an approach developed by William Miller, has been well established as an effective way to promote behavior change in individuals. Following a brief review of the fundamental MI principles and micro-skills, this MI skill development training will focus on helping individuals to engage in change talk, and then make commitments to make behavioral changes based on goals that they have identified. Ample time will be devoted to real play and other group discussion and activities to enable training participants to gain skills necessary to elicit change talk from individuals with low levels of readiness for change, thereby increasing levels of motivation and moving them toward action to address their substance use issues.

Motivational interviewing, a treatment approach developed by William Miller, has been well established as an effective way to promote behavior change in individuals. This course requires previous training and experience using motivational interviewing. It will provide in depth instruction, practice and feedback on fostering and utilizing change talk to increase client motivation and movement toward change across all health, mental health and substance use conditions.  Significant time will be devoted to "real play" practice to enable participants to gain skills necessary to elicit change talk from clients with low levels of readiness for change, thereby increasing levels of motivation and moving them toward action to address their health-related issues. Additional content will be presented towards the conclusion of the training that is based upon common deficits that arise when trainees practice using their advanced MI skills.

This training is intended for any provider in contact with LGBT individuals (including mental health and SUD providers. The full-day curriculum consists of seven training modules, beginning with an introduction to key terms followed by a module on cultural considerations, and concluding with treatment considerations for clinical work. The other four modules address the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals.  One of the goals of this training is to help service providers create affirming environments for LGBT people to help engage and retain them in care.

Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment approaches are utilized in a variety of care settings. SBIRT has been shown to be effective in primary care settings, where it is incorporated into other routine medical assessments such as measuring blood pressure.  It has been proven particularly effective in hospital emergency departments and trauma centers with individuals with alcohol‐related injuries.  This training focuses on screening procedures to identify risk; key motivational interviewing concepts and principles that are tied to effective use of the FLO (Feedback; Listen and Understand; Options Explored) brief intervention; and referral to treatment for patients with more serious substance use‐related problems.  The training seeks to increase the number of primary care providers who can serve as champions to broaden the effective use and implementation of SBIRT in primary care settings throughout California. **NOTE: This training was approved by the California Department of Health Care Services, and fulfills the 4-hour SBIRT training requirement noted in the All Plan Letter dated February 10, 2014 (APL 14-004).

This training provides information on the acute and chronic effects and consequences of psychoactive substances most commonly used and will introduce participants to the epidemiology, prevalence, and neurobiology of co-occurring disorders. This training will define substance use disorder (SUD) and addiction and explore the neurobiological basis of SUDs, providing information on the medical consequences of substance use.

This interactive daylong training will introduce participants to the subject of case management for working with clients and patients before, during, and following active treatment for a substance use disorder.  The key differences between case management and clinical treatment will be explored. The training will introduce the foundational principles of case management theory and present the four prevalent models of case management including the brokerage/generalist model and the strengths-based model. The training will present the core functions of case management framed as the 3 C's (Connection, Communication, and Coordination), and explore the three types of agency coordination by which case management can be facilitated. Throughout the training, individuals will have the opportunity to operationalize concepts through active participation in multiple interactive exercises.

This training will provide information on treatment planning, including program-driven versus individualized treatment plans: the What, Who, When and How of treatment planning, and treatment plan components.  The training will explore the ASAM assessment and dimensions, and how they can be incorporated into an individualized treatment plan. Treatment goals and strategies will also be discussed along with modification of treatment plans following relapse/recidivism.  The training will conclude with interactive exercises focused on various case examples.