This course helps to understand the mental health and addictions concepts in Canada. Students learn key terms, common illnesses, and kind of addiction types. The course discusses such concepts as recovery, harm reduction, and client-centered care. It focuses on the analysis of stigma, social factors and development of mental health systems. Students are taught of the moral, caring aspect of support workers.

The course explores the role of the biological, psychological, and social dimensions in developing and maintaining human lives and in promoting mental health at different stages of life. The students learn about the key theories of development and diagnosis of mental disorders using the DSM-5. The objectives of the course are in the biopsychosocial approach and the impacts of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). It points out the developmental distractions which may cause mental illness or addiction. Learners are able to have a comprehensive view on client behavior in a developmental context.

This course examines substance use and the behaviours of addiction such as drugs, alcohol, gambling and technology. Students will examine about the most common models of addiction: disease, moral, biopsychosocial and their real-world applications. Issues of co-occurring mental health disorders and their effects on addiction are covered in the course. The priority is given to the harm reduction, stages of change, and culturally responsive care. The registered students also get practical ways of respectful and evidence-based support as part of the addiction scenario.

Trauma-Informed Practice assists students to learn about the impact of various forms of trauma- acute, chronic, complex, and intergenerational trauma - on the mind, body and behaviour. It will be achieved through the course, which would entail building safe, respectful, and empowering environments among traumatized people. Compassionate communication and resilience-building strategies can give students the opportunity to understand how to help others without causing even more damage. It also demonstrates the significance of self-care and how it can be applied to future support workers having to understand and appropriately address the emotional consequence of managing trauma-exposed environments.

The objective of Counselling Skills for Support Workers is to enable students to acquire the necessary communication skills that will assist them to relate and communicate with people who experience mental illness and the problem of addictions. The course involves teaching on how to build trust by active listening, empathy and intelligent questions. Motivational interviewing and strength-based support will also be identified as possible solutions to help students to achieve positive change. Such practice is obtained through role-playing and real-life situations in which learners are taught how to treat the clients in a compassionate but in way that does not cross ethical line as well as cultural boundaries.

Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention helps students to approach individuals in a state of mental health emergency in a confident and caring way. The lessons will show the process of detecting signs of crisis, risk evaluation, implementing calming strategies to safely resolve crises such as suicidal thoughts and self-harm. The students will be instructed on how to construct safety plans, how to be an effective communicator, and how to respect cultural diversities and trauma backgrounds. Other legal and ethical duties like mandatory reporting, collaboration with other support agencies are also discussed as an important part of the course. All in all, it prepares them to react in a calm and professional way during emergency life-threatening situations.

Indigenous Mental Health and Cultural Safety aids and assists in learning how to interact in a respectful and thoughtful manner with the First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples. The course speaks of the colonialist legacies, residential school, systemic racism, intergenerational trauma, and its impact on the Indigenous mental health on a long-term scale. Indigenous world views, traditional healing and a community-based model of care will be introduced to the students. Critical learning and the development of cultural humility through personal reflection enable learners to know how to play a part in mental health and addictions support by helping to promote healing and reconciliation.

Mental Health Law, Ethics, and Professionalism is an informative exposure to the legal systems, ethical issues and professional practices that are required to support mental health and addictions support practice in Canada. Among the important acts analyzed in the course are the Mental Health Act, Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIA) and Child, Youth and Family Services Act. The learners are expected to debate essential concerns of consent, competency, confidentiality, mandatory reporting, and client rights. This focuses on models of ethical decision-making, professional codes of conduct and how to establish cultural safety. The course also prepares the learners to face complex ethical and legal issues in a manner that exudes professionalism, integrity, and accountability.

Case Management and Community Resources trains students who are further armed with skills of successfully combining holistic support to the mentally ill and substance abusers. The major case management processes include intake, assessment, goals and setting of goals, advocacy, service coordination, and discharge planning and this course will ensure that such core processes are understood. The students develop an understanding in detail of what is available in the community like housing, healthcare, financial assistance, employment, and legal services. Having a powerful emphasis on the empowerment of clients and collaboration among various agencies, the course also allows students to acquire skills in realistic documentation, referrals, and development of sound relationship with the community to assist clients in their recovery and independence.

Recovery-Oriented Practice and Peer Support Foundations would have helped to explore fully the aspects involved in recovery principles within mental health and addictions with particular regard to their significance in Canada in terms of lived experience and peer support. The course shows the transition shift in the symptom management to hope, self-determination, and personal meaning. Using the theory and history of philosophy, learners will learn the difference between the clinical and the lived-experience informed practice. They are ready to work with the peer supporters effectively and use recovery-related practices to foster dignity, empowerment, and goal setting in a client-centered approach.

Applied Case Studies provides students the experiential learning aspect of applying the knowledge, skills and ethics of the programs to reality by means of actual client situations. Critical thinking, risk assessment, support planning, and interprofessional collaboration are the most significant parts of the course. Learners will be able to increase their decision-making, empathy, and documentation through simulations, reflections, and role-play, all without crossing any professional boundaries and cultural safety. The course is a capstone course that equips students with the ability to practice well and ethically in the actual environment of mental health and addictions.

Career Development and Job Readiness educates students on how to acquire key skills and resources as they gain confidence to join the mental health and addictions workforce. The course includes subjects on writing job resumes and cover letters, interviewing skills, and goal-oriented job search activities in the community and health care support occupation. Workplace expectations, self-advocacy, and the need to engage in continuing professional development are also taught to students. Mock interviews, portfolio development and reflective exercises enable learners to attain resilience, confidence and determination to establish a successful and sustainable career in human services field.