Mental Health & Addictions
In-depth theory and hands-on training in addictions and mental health — interview techniques, relapse prevention, crisis management, and client support.
Core topics
Modules & lessons
Work top to bottom — every lesson has an objective, curated resources, a hands-on lab, and a self-check.
Module 1 · Foundations Beginner 4 lessons ›
Mental Health & Mental Illness in Canada
🎯 Describe the landscape and reduce stigma.One in five Canadians experiences a mental illness each year; common conditions include depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. Stigma is the biggest barrier to care — language matters ('person with schizophrenia', not 'schizophrenic'). Recovery is the model: people live meaningful lives with illness.
✍️ Self-check question
What does the recovery model say that the old 'cure' model did not?
Understanding Addiction
🎯 Explain substance use disorders and their impacts.Addiction is a chronic, treatable brain condition — not a moral failure: substances hijack reward pathways, tolerance builds, and withdrawal drives continued use. Know the major classes: alcohol, opioids, stimulants, cannabis, benzodiazepines — their effects, risks, and withdrawal dangers (alcohol and benzo withdrawal can kill).
✍️ Self-check question
Why is stopping alcohol 'cold turkey' dangerous for a heavy drinker?
The Biopsychosocial Model & Trauma-Informed Care
🎯 Assess clients as whole people.Mental health problems arise from biology (genetics, chemistry), psychology (thinking, coping), and social factors (housing, trauma, poverty). Trauma-informed care assumes many clients have trauma histories: prioritize safety, choice, collaboration, and empowerment — never ask 'what is wrong with you', ask 'what happened to you'.
✍️ Self-check question
Give three examples of trauma-informed vs non-trauma-informed phrasing.
Boundaries, Ethics & Self-Care
🎯 Work ethically and sustainably in helping roles.Helping relationships need boundaries: no dual relationships, no gifts that create obligation, confidentiality with legal limits (duty to report child abuse, risk of serious harm). Compassion fatigue is an occupational hazard — supervision, peer support, and real time off are professional requirements, not luxuries.
✍️ Self-check question
When may you break confidentiality? Name three situations.
Module 2 · Counselling & Intervention Skills Intermediate 4 lessons ›
Interviewing & Active Listening
🎯 Conduct a supportive intake conversation.The helping interview: open questions, minimal encouragers, paraphrasing, summarizing, and comfortable silence. Avoid: advice in the first five minutes, 'why' questions that sound like blame, and stacking multiple questions. Your first goal in any session is not to fix — it is to make the person feel accurately heard.
✍️ Self-check question
Turn 'Why did you start drinking again?' into a non-blaming question.
Motivational Interviewing Basics
🎯 Evoke the client's own motivation to change.MI works with ambivalence, not against it: people change when THEY voice the reasons. Core skills (OARS): Open questions, Affirmations, Reflections, Summaries. Roll with resistance — arguing strengthens the status quo. Listen for change talk ('I need to cut down') and reflect it back louder.
✍️ Self-check question
What is 'change talk' and what do you do when you hear it?
Crisis Intervention & Suicide Safety
🎯 Respond to crises and ask about suicide directly.Crisis response: ensure immediate safety, stay calm and present, listen without judgment, and connect to help. Suicide prevention: ask directly ('Are you thinking of killing yourself?') — asking does not plant the idea. Assess plan/means/intent, never promise secrecy, and know Ontario resources: 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline, mobile crisis teams, 911 for imminent risk.
✍️ Self-check question
A client says 'everyone would be better off without me' — what are your next three steps?
Relapse Prevention & Recovery Planning
🎯 Build a practical relapse-prevention plan.Relapse is a process, not an event: triggers (HALT — Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired), high-risk situations, and the abstinence violation effect (one slip → shame → full relapse). A prevention plan lists triggers, warning signs, coping actions, and support contacts. Lapse = data; the plan gets updated, not abandoned.
✍️ Self-check question
Why does treating a lapse as total failure increase relapse risk?
Module 3 · Systems, Documentation & Career Professional 4 lessons ›
Case Management & Community Resources
🎯 Coordinate care across services.Case managers assess needs, set goals with the client, refer to services, and follow up. Ontario's map: CMHA branches, withdrawal management centres, ACT teams, housing programs, and primary care. Warm referrals beat phone numbers — make the call together when possible. Document every contact; funding depends on it.
✍️ Self-check question
What is a warm referral and why does it work better?
Group Facilitation Basics
🎯 Co-facilitate a support or psychoeducation group.Groups heal through universality ('I am not alone'). Facilitation skills: set norms first (confidentiality, respect, no cross-talk), balance airtime, redirect monopolizers kindly, and close each session with a takeaway. Psychoeducation groups (stress, sleep, cravings) follow a plan: check-in → topic → practice → commitment.
✍️ Self-check question
How do you handle a member who dominates every session?
Documentation & Professional Communication
🎯 Write objective notes and reports.Progress notes are legal documents: date/time, objective observations, client quotes in quotation marks, interventions, and plan — no judgments or diagnoses beyond your role. Common formats: SOAP and DAP. Report writing for case conferences: concise, factual, strengths included alongside concerns.
✍️ Self-check question
Rewrite: 'Client was being manipulative and lazy today' into objective language.
Career Launch: Helping-Profession Interviews
🎯 Win a support worker role.Employers (CMHA, shelters, treatment centres, crisis lines) interview with scenarios: suicidal caller, intoxicated client, boundary test. They look for: calm, empathy, knowledge of local resources, and self-awareness about limits. Your placement performance + a crisis-line certificate (ASIST) makes a powerful entry package.
✍️ Self-check question
Why do employers ask 'what would you NOT be able to handle?' — and how do you answer?
Program quiz
Career outcomes
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