Interactive Story Session: Understanding Substance Use Stigma

Formerly titled Substance Use Simulation - no change to course content

Immerse yourself in a captivating interactive story session designed to refine your skills in establishing therapeutic relationships with individuals who use substances, through a harm reduction approach. Explore the compelling narrative of Walter — a middle-aged laborer taken to hospital under the Mental Health Act following an incident involving substance use.

In this session, you'll analyze and reflect on pivotal clinical interactions, gaining profound insights directly from Walter's journey. Additionally, delve deeper with an exclusive interview featuring the actor who portrays him.

Key Learning Objectives:

• Apply harm reduction based approaches to build effective therapeutic relationships and offer appropriate community resources/support.
• Identify risk assessment and de-escalation strategies to ensure safety in clinical environments.
• Understand how stigma affects people who use substances

Format & Delivery:
Interactive video-based session with pause periods for reflective discussions and valuable insights from peer educators with lived/ living experience. Facilitated by a Nurse Educator and Peer Educator, this session is available online or in person (alternating throughout the year).

Takeaways:

• Strategies for communicating in a patient-centered, trauma-informed manner.
• Harm reduction approaches to support clients in accessing appropriate resources.
• Enhanced empathy and understanding in clinical practice.

Session dates generally open a few months prior to the course date, so if you do not see a session date listed that works for you, please feel free to reach our team at RegionalAddictionProgram@vch.ca, or check back again at a later date.