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Relapse prevention is a recent addition to the suite of responses to behavioural problems, including substance use, eating disorders, and sexual offending, all of which have cognitive and behavioural elements in common. As an intervention model, relapse prevention has emerged as a supplemental tool in recognition of the challenges many individuals face in maintaining treatment gains. Historically, maintenance of treatment gains had been poor, and the notions of lapse and relapse in the substance using client were not well understood. Relapse prevention has since emerged as an aspect of addiction treatment where ‘failure’ has been reconceptualised as an experience from which substance using clients may learn. In addition, any approach to the treatment of substance misuse and other addictions is incomplete without a strategy for assisting clients to maintain treatment gains or abstinence in their post-treatment lives.

This course is divided into three parts. The first part concerns the theoretical basis of relapse prevention, and the evidence base which informs its application in practice. The second part of the course focuses on knowledge of the situational risk factors and cognitive distortions that maintain health compromising behaviours. Students are guided through several readings and practical activities to assist development of skills for identification of cognitive distortions. This component also includes a range of strategies for responding to client lapses and relapse, both for short to medium term management, and for longer term maintenance of resilience to relapse risk. The final module addresses ethics and cultural factors, both of which are either mandated or recommended aspects of training in the health professions. The knowledge components of the course are provided in a structured 10-module format assessed through a series of online quizzes, while the skills component is assessed via a multi-faceted applied case study task.

On completion of this course students should be able to:

1. Critically analyse the evidence base for relapse prevention in substance using populations
2. Apply the foundation theory and principles of relapse prevention
3. Critically discuss a range of different treatment approaches in relapse prevention, and when they are indicated or contraindicated
4. Apply a relapse management framework in accordance with best practice principles
5. Critically discuss ethical and cultural factors in relapse prevention