Funded by a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Substance Use Disorder (SUD) training grant The SUD Highly Qualified Practitioner Training and Preparation Project will ensure that graduates of Miami University will undertake cutting edge SUD training, and will be certified to use the training to provide high quality SUD services in Ohio and elsewhere. Enhancing and integrating SUD topics into Miami's regular curriculum will deepen the understanding and enhance the skill development of future social service professionals across disciplines.

This enhanced understanding will include information related to substance use disorders, case management, when and how to refer for substance use treatment, relapse prevention, how to handle relapse, and how models, such as harm reduction, work in the field. In addition, a key component of this project is developing a clear pathway to certification and licensure through the Ohio Chemical Dependency Professionals Board to increase the pool of eligible applicants for jobs in the region and deepen the SUD knowledge of skilled professionals in a variety of employment settings, including but not limited to social services, nursing, teacher education, psychology, educational psychology, and kinesiology and health.

Goals and Objectives

The goals of the project are to:

• Increase the capacity of the local SUD workforce by increasing the number of well-trained, educated, skilled, competent, certified, and credentialed providers who can implement high-quality SUD services.
• Expand our network of partnerships to support newly trained field practicum students by increasing their practical knowledge during the implementation of high-quality SUD services.

Our objectives for achieving these goals include:

• completing revisions of undergraduate and graduate SUD courses
• increasing students' knowledge and usefulness of key SUD concepts
• using experts in SUD screening, assessment, and treatment to oversee the development, implementation, and revision of the new SUD curriculum to ensure research-informed content
• increasing field placement students' knowledge and skills related to SUD screening, assessment, and treatment
• increasing faculty's knowledge of SUD screening, assessment, and treatment
• expanding partnership resources through membership and participation in the Mental Health & Addiction Advocacy Coalition

To create the biggest impact, this training will be offered to 190 undergraduate and graduate students across the university with specific recruitment efforts targeting social work, nursing, public health, kinesiology, psychology, teacher education, and educational psychology students. Graduate students in the social work program will be required to take a 3-credit hour course on SUD Treatment Techniques, aligning with the State of Ohio's Chemical Dependency Counselor Assistant and Chemical Dependency Counselor required training content areas.