Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

1. Apply knowledge of specific assessment protocols and treatment strategies to adolescents presenting with substance use concerns.
2. Respond to resistance and other obstacles related to motivation and treatment engagement using knowledge of adolescent psychology.
3. Assist in the facilitation of recovery within the context of the client’s family systems using knowledge of cultural and peer group norms.
4. Articulate the impact that diagnosing has on the developing identity of the adolescent.
5. Apply knowledge of specific assessment protocols and treatment strategies including medication assisted treatment to adolescents presenting with substance use concerns.

This is primarily a lecture course. Students will be asked to create a treatment proposal for a specific “client” provided via a case study by the instructor.

1. An assessment process that will extract information from lectures, readings and other multimedia presentations via a test of a basic understanding of the targeted concepts.
2. A project that requires the student to synthesize the course material into an appropriate referral for a fictional adolescent who presents with a substance use concern.

1) Adolescent Developmental Issues
2) Childhood Trauma
3) Assessing Adolescents
4) Suicide Prevention
5) Trauma Informed Services
6) Assessing Family Systems
7) Cultural Assessments
8) Core Components of Adolescent Treatment
9) Relapse Prevention
10) Adolescent Health (including sex education and disease prevention).
11) Social Obstacles and Supports
12) Resource for Adolscents