Detoxification Part 1:  Identification of Need and Therapeutic Interventions – 6 hours

Detoxification Part 2:  Special Needs and Considerations  – 6 hours

Every helping professional who works with drug and alcohol addicted clients should have a basic understanding of the drugs of abuse and the problems associated with their potential withdrawal issues.   Some will want and need more information into the special medical and psychological needs that occur during detoxification as well as considerations that exist for special populations.  As such, we have revised and expanded out basic detoxification course into a 2-part course that examines detoxification needs of various addictive drugs and current therapeutic interventions that are useful in preventing clients from suffering needlessly in early stages of recovery programming:  

• Detoxification:Identification of Need and Therapeutic Interventions, and

• Detoxification: Special Needs and Considerations

Each course will provide 6 hours of basic or continuing educational credits. 

Goals/Objectives

By participating in this Part 1 of this DLC, the trainee will:

1.      examine the history of detoxification services;

2.      review the guiding principles in detoxification and substance abuse treatment;

3.      identify psychosocial and biomedical screening and assessment issues;

4.      examine drug-specific withdrawal syndromes and obtain guidelines for their clinical management;

5.      obtain a description of the treatment settings in which detoxification occurs;

6.      review considerations relating to patient matching;

7.      explore a new configuration for detoxification services – the modified medical model;

8.      learn how to improve the of quality of care by ensuring that persons are treated in a detoxification setting appropriate to their clinical needs, using ASAM Patient Placement Criteria.

By participating in this Part 2 of this DLC, the trainee will:

1.      identify issues related to evaluation of psychosocial and biomedical issues;

2.      explore strategies for engaging and retaining patients in detoxification;

3.      examine the principles of care for patient with co-occurring medical conditions;

4.      examine the principles of care for patient with co-occurring psychiatric conditions;

5.      review considerations that must be taken into account when providing detoxification services to individuals who are incarcerated, adolescent, elderly, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive;

6.      identify women's issues in detoxification;

7.      identify issues in detoxification for other special populations.

Your Course Instructor:
Kevin R. Scheel
MS, MAC, LMFT
Co-Founder, DLCAS

Kevin R. Scheel is a Masters prepared chemical dependency counselor with more than thirty-two years of experience in the human service field. He has served as the director of programs in the public sector as well as in private care facilities, both in the profit and not-for-profit arenas. He has been involved in the delivery of education services to the field since 1986 as an instructor at McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas, and as a private training consultant with Hazelden. Mr. Scheel is the author of "Alcohol: Chemistry & Culture," as well as a series of education videotapes on the various drugs of abuse, published and marketed by WRS Group, Inc. He has also created a preparation and review manual that is currently in use by a variety of colleges and universities in Texas, designed to aid students preparing for their Texas chemical dependency credential.

While in Texas Kevin served as the Texas Coordinator for the federally funded Project for Addiction Counselor Training (PACT) program. For this project Mr. Scheel designed a 270 hour curriculum for beginning counselors, delivering over 45,000 hours of classroom training to 415 minority students. As a result of his efforts, 268 of these students have gone on to obtain their credentials to practice chemical dependency counseling in Texas.

Kevin also served in the position as Coordinator for the Texas Addiction Training Center (currently the Texas Addition Technology Transfer Center), a federally funded project from the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment in Washington, D.C. The goal of this project has been to increase the level of addiction education to the various disciplines offering counseling services to drug and alcohol affected clients. In Texas this project worked with 8 major colleges and universities.

In addition to his role as a founder of the DLCAS, Kevin is currently serving as the Director of Educational Services for the DLCAS.