Child Intervention for Living Drug-Free (CHILD) Curriculum provides treatment providers with the tools they need to identify, assess, and treat children with substance use disorders (SUDs) using age-appropriate interventions and methodologies.
It is a six-course training programme that responds to the needs of children and their caregivers impacted by substance use and life circumstances of various social, cultural, economic, and political situations.
The curriculum was developed by an internationally-recognised panel of experts from a broad range of specialisations—including treatment, prevention, public policy, pediatric medicine, psychology and pharmacology—with first-hand experience in working directly with substance-using children and their caregivers from diverse social backgrounds.
UTC 31: Interventions for Children with Substance Use Disorders
This first foundational course addresses the uniqueness of treating children with substance use disorder, beginning with the need for treatment professionals to alter intervention techniques to accommodate the child’s level of cognitive and emotional development. It introduces major topics for expansion in later courses, including basic counseling skills, motivational interviewing, treatments for children exposed to trauma, pharmacological options as a part of treatment, and ethical considerations.
UTC 32: Treating Children with Substance Use Disorders: Special Considerations and Counseling with Children
Course 2 builds on the theoretical foundations set forth in Course 1 and effectively translates theoretical constructs into hands-on practices for use in the field.
Child substance use disorder is presented through the lens of health care in which substance use disorder is seen as a complex, but treatable disease in which cooccurring disorders are common. Treatment providers are then introduced to practical applications of 12 key underlying concepts of effective child substance use disorder treatment.
UTC 33: Motivational Interviewing for Children with Substance Use Disorders
This course builds on the key concepts set forth in Course 2 and explores basic counseling skills in greater detail.
Course 3 focuses on the development of the Motivational Interviewing (MI) technique, a skill which can permeate and bolster all of the practitioner’s efforts in the field. MI is recognized as a practical technique for developing empathy in the treatment provider; empathy which he or she then extends to the child and caregiver(s) experiencing the impact of drug-life circumstances.
UTC 34: Attachment Theory and Principles of Treating Children with Substance Use Disorders Affected by Trauma and Distress
The critical premise of this extensive course is that relationships form a child’s world, including relationships with the mother, the family, and the community. It addresses relationships in the context of “Attachment Theory” and “Styles of Attachment” and further explores the complex link between a child’s “style of attachment” and substance use.
UTC 35: Principles of Pharmacological Treatment for Children with Substance Use Disorders: A Menu of Options
This course focuses on pharmacology as one part of a holistic and systems approach to managing substance use disorders in children.
It is designed for two primary audiences; first, medically-trained individuals who are qualified to prescribe and supervise the administration of pharmacological agents to children, and second, non-medically trained professionals for whom an increased understanding of pharmacological interventions can enhance the capacity to observe, assess, monitor, and help children with substance use disorders.
UTC 36: The Suitcase for Life Intervention Tool
This course offers practitioners a unique intervention tool for working directly with children in the field. The highly mobile and culturally adaptable Suitcase For Life is informed by the broad range of evidenced-based principles and efficacious treatment practices set forth in Courses 1-5.