To develop human resources in the area of drug abuse counselling, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) will soon launch a certificate programme in ‘alcohol and drug abuse counselling’.

Slated to be launched on March 23, the six-month certificate programme will serve as an introduction to the field of alcohol and drug abuse counselling.

G Shreekumar Menon, coordinator of the Centre for Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (CNPS) of MAHE, said the course would help deepen understanding of substance use disorders. It will facilitate the development of addiction counselling competencies that are associated with positive treatment outcomes.

He told BusinessLine that an alcoholic person who undergoes rehabilitation may recover from the addiction. Terming drug addiction as a different category, he said drugs alter the brain chemistry and it is harder to wean addicts away from drugs.

On the reasons for including alcohol counselling in the certificate programme, he said alcohol is a medium of taking drugs. That is why the CNPS decided to integrate alcohol and drug abuse counselling in this programme.

He said the NGOs working in the field of rehabilitation, student welfare officers, hostel wardens, and those in the field of psychology and psychiatry can opt for this certificate programme. The admission requirement is a bachelor’s degree.

The certificate programme has been designed in such a way that layman can understand it. “You can’t expect a student welfare officer or a hostel warden to be a doctor. But they are the first ones to come in contact with this problem. We give them hands-on experience on what to look out for and how to identify a student on drugs,” he said.

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