This course contains key information about substance abuse and a particular mental disorder, highlighting advice to the counselor to help working with clients with those disorders. A relevant case history accompanies each disorder in the section. This course is meant to function as “quick reference” to help the substance abuse treatment counselor understand the mental disorder diagnosis and its implication for treatment planning.
The second part of the course provides information on mental disorder symptoms caused by the use of substances. It outlines the toxic effect of substances and provides an overview of substance-induced symptoms that can mimic mental disorders.
The goals and objectives for the first section of this course are for the student to understand:
• Cross-cutting issues
• Personality disorders
• Mood disorders and anxiety disorders
• Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders
• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
• Posttraumatic stress disorder
• Eating disorders
• Pathological gambling
The goals and objectives of the second section of this course are for the student to understand:
• A description of substance-induced disorders
• The diagnostic considerations
• How to identify substance-induced disorders
Your Course Instructor:
Robert Shearer, PhD
Dr. Robert A. Shearer is a retired professor of criminal justice in the College of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University. He has been teaching, training, consulting, and conducting research in the fields of criminal justice, human behavior, and addictions for over thirty-six years. He is the author of over sixty professional and refereed articles in criminal justice and behavior. He is also the author of Interviewing: Theories, Techniques, and Practices, 5th edition published by Prentice Hall. Dr. Shearer has also created over a dozen measurement, research, and assessment instruments in criminal justice and addictions including Law Enforcement Strategies Scale (LSS), Correctional Strategies Scale (CSS), Probation Strategies Scale (PSS), Correctional Treatment Resistance Scale (CTRS), the Comprehensive Substance Abuse Counseling Orientation Inventory (CSACOI), and the Substance Abuse Consequences Scale (SACS).
He has been a psychotherapist in private practice and served as a consultant to dozens of local, state, and national agencies. He has taught courses in interviewing, human behavior, substance abuse counseling, drugs and crime, and correctional counseling. He is currently developing an Interrogation Tactics Scale that measures levels of approval of coercion in interrogations with suspected offenders.
He has been the president of the International Association of Addictions and Offender Counseling and editor of the Journal of Addictions and Offender Counseling. Recently, Dr. Shearer completed a survey of the beliefs of over 300 substance abuse counselors in a large correctional system in the southwestern U.S. He is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma.