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CRDHB Teaching

CRDHB has recently been involved in developing a new teaching unit "Drug, Alcohol, Tobacco Use and Public Health".

Aim
To develop students understanding of the importance of drug use to public health, and to gain an appreciation of current tobacco, alcohol and other drug research, policy and intervention issues from a specifically public health perspective.

Objectives
By the end of the module students will be able to:

(i) describe and compare the burden of harms from different drugs and patterns of use;
(ii) identify public health objectives in relation to drug use and differentiate these from other influences on public policy formation;
(iii) describe a wide range of interventions in terms of their contributions to reducing drug-related harm, from individually targeted approaches to international regulatory measures;
(iv) evaluate the public health content of current policy debates on drug use;
(v) analyse issues involved in researching drug, alcohol and tobacco use in public health and critique the resulting evidence.

Constituency
Students on the MSc Public Health, particularly those in the general and health promotion streams. This will also be useful for other students in PHP and elsewhere who already have or wish to develop an interest in this topic. There is no requirement to have taken specific Term 1 modules.

Conceptual outline
The health and other harms associated with tobacco, alcohol and other drugs will be described and compared, with attention also given to particularly high risk or harmful patterns of use. Intervention strategies in different populations at individual, community and structural levels will be examined, in part through use of a historical perspective. Current research issues and policy debates in both high and low income countries will be considered.

Teaching strategy
Lectures, seminars, groupwork, presentations and debates and individual study.

Learning time
Total learning time is 100 hours, with approximately 25 hours contact time and 75 hours for individual study including assessment task completion.

Assessment
Students will write a 1500 word essay on a public health approach to a policy debate or on a research issue.