This foundational training covers key principles of substance use care in treatment and recovery services. This course will be relevant to people working in many types of roles within both bed-based and non-bed-based recovery services. If you are working in a recovery-oriented space, you will likely receive additional training that is specific to your role. The training you will receive in this course is different from getting a certification for a specific health profession.
This course is for:
- Peer support workers
- Intake workers
- Counsellors
- Social workers
- Service operators
- Coordinators
- Supportive housing staff
- Administrative staff
- Students
- Volunteers
- Anyone else who helps people seeking substance use recovery services
Because this course is for a wide variety of roles within substance use services, we will use the word “worker” to refer to you throughout the course.
Throughout the course, you will go through nine modules that cover the foundations of supporting someone with a substance use disorder in a recovery and treatment setting.
- Understanding Substance Use
- Promoting Health Equity
- Cultural Safety and Humility
- Trauma- and Violence-Informed Care
- Building Relationships and Communicating Respectfully
- Professional Boundaries and Ethical Conduct
- Substance Use Services and Care Planning
- Medications for Substance Use Disorder Treatment
- Self-Care and Collective Care
Those who complete the course are eligible to receive 10 hours of continuing education units through the Canadian Addiction Counsellors Certification Federation
Course Sponsors
This course was created by the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU), the BC Addiction Recovery Association (BCARA), and the Community Action Initiative (CAI). This project was supported by the Province of British Columbia.
Collaborations
Alongside the partnership with BCARA, CAI, and the BCCSU, Foundational Skills for the Substance Use, Treatment, and Recovery Workforce was developed in collaboration with community members and partners, including:
- People with lived and living experience (PWLLE) accessing recovery services
- Family members of PWLLE
- Indigenous community partners
- Staff working in recovery services
- Operators of recovery services
- Health authority partners
Acknowledgments
- Steering Committee
- Project Team
- Reviewers
- Course Contributors
We are grateful to the recovery community for their valuable contributions to this course
- Go to https://courses.cpe.ubc.ca/browse/ubcv/medicine/bccsu/courses/foundational-skills-for-the-substance-use-treatment-and-recovery-workforce-2026
- Click on the "Enroll" button and complete the registration form. Once you submit the form, you will see the following notification and receive an email from Canvas Catalogue.
- In the email from Canvas Catalogue, click on "Complete Registration."
- You will then be taken to the "Welcome Aboard!" page. Choose a password and click on "Register."
Once you complete the registration, you will be taken to the Student Dashboard page. Click on "Begin Course" to access the course.
- Complete modules 1 through 9 (i.e., viewed all the pages in each module). This includes both the module and the quiz. When a module is completed correctly, you will see a checkmark next to it.
- Achieve 80% (i.e., correctly answer at least 4 out of 5 questions) in all the module quizzes.
- Complete the exit survey.
Once you have completed all 3 items, the certificate will be available on your student dashboard (https://courses.cpe.ubc.ca/dashboard/completed). You will be able to download and share your course completion certificate.
