Client Family Community Education | Addiction Counselor Exam Review Episode

Hey there everybody, and welcome to this installment of Addiction Counselor Exam Review Podcast. In this episode, we're going to examine the counselor's function in providing client, family and community education, identify the benefits of outreach and education, and identify qualities of effective education efforts. Learning is defined as a change in behavior that can occur at any time or in any place as a result of exposure to environmental stimuli. So that is a really long winded version for saying people can learn to change anywhere, anytime. They just have to have more information, more tools. And that's what the counselor can do, is provide those tools. That's the environmental stimuli, that's the counselor standing up there talking. The handouts we give, the books that are available, whatever the teacher and learner jointly perform teaching and learning activities. How does that work? Well, you know what, every time I walk into a classroom, I don't know what each person in there knows and they don't know what I know. So I start teaching and then they educate me about what they need more information on so I can tailor my approach to meet their needs. And sometimes they have information that I don't have. So we work together collaboratively. Counselors are often called upon to teach daily living skills to increase patients level of independence. So we can help people learn how to balance a checkbook, how to ride the bus, how to, you know, call their insurance company, anything that they need to learn how to do. Health educators provide information to individuals and communities on a variety of important topics, including biological, medical and physical aspects of substance abuse, safety, hiv, nutrition, general medical conditions, smoking, pregnancy and mental health. Now, as counselors, we can also step in there and help some with providing information about aspects of mental health and recovery. Success is measured not by how much content has been imparted, by how much, but by how much person has learned. I can stand up there for an hour or more and talk and talk and talk and provide a ton of information. But if people walk out and they haven't gotten anything out of it, then that was not a successful presentation. If I get up there and I talk for an hour about one concept and the people that are in that room walk out of that room and they know that concept and they understand it and they can apply it, then I've been successful. So success is involves making sure that your audience understands and learns the concept that you're trying to impart. They can't apply it until they learn it. Client and family Community education is the process of providing clients, families, significant others and community groups with information on a variety of topics. This can include prevention, health and wellness, resilience behaviors, signs of substance abuse, recovery options. There's a whole lot of things that we can provide education about. And education is not therapy. Education is providing people information about resources and tools and ideas. So if we're talking about communication skills, for example, you can do an education presentation on that and help people learn what assertive communication is. Learn what assertive communication looks like compared to passive and aggressive. They can learn how to be assertive. What does it sound like? What does it look like? They can role play being assertive. So they're learning this skill. They're not delving deep into their past issues about anything. They're learning a skill. The role of educator encompasses many knowledge and skill sets such as understanding and applying the principles of learning theory, and we're going to talk about these in a few minutes. Using specific teaching skills to accommodate individual learning styles and making adaptations for culture, age, and linguistic ability among learners. Anytime you do a group, whether it's a psychoed group or you're teaching in the community, or you're doing a library presentation, you're going to have a variety of people with a variety of different backgrounds and needs. So it's important that you're able to try to connect with each person. Or on some level, educational groups help engage the client in treatment and recovery and are much less threatening because it's easier to learn than to change. Well, we want them to change. Yes, we do. But they've got to learn first. So if we engage them in this learning process and they feel empowered when they're learning, then there are going to feel even more empowered when they start trying to apply that information to change. And they're going to have developed that rapport and engagement with you during this less threatening process of learning. So they are more willing to rely on you during the change process. Characteristics of Adult Learners they're engaged in multiple roles. They may be parents, they may be employees. They are somebody's child, they are somebody's friend, maybe somebody's spouse. There are a lot of different things, things that they are. They have more life experiences than, say, children. So we don't have to explain down to the nth detail everything. But on the other hand, you know, they can contribute a lot. They can say, oh, that reminds me of a time when. Or is it like when this happens and they can relate it to something meaningful to them. They need a safe environment in which they don't have to be afraid to be wrong. So we want to encourage participation. If they're not Working with the material. If they're not trying to apply the material, they're probably not going to remember the material. They're self directed and don't want to be spoon fed. They want you to ask them questions, they want you to provide some information and then help them figure out, okay, now what do I do with this? They don't want you to do it for them. They're relevancy oriented. So if you're teaching a concept like self esteem, which, you know, people are like, okay, that's good, but how does it benefit me to get them to understand and learn the material? You have to bring it back and help them understand what's in it for me. When we teach and in my class on teaching adult learners, we talk about the fact that for people to learn information, first they have to get it in their mind. So that's through seeing, hearing or doing. You know, they get it in their mind, then they have to process it and figure out what to do with it. And then they have to decide, is this even important enough for me to make room in my memory banks for it? So we have to make sure that it's relevant. When people go to meetings, for example, and they're like, oh, I hate going to those meetings, I just get nothing out of them or whatever. I encourage them to start going to meetings with the intention of getting one thing out of the meeting. So they go, and when they're leaving the meeting, I want them to write down in their, in their journal, what is the one thing that you got out of this meeting? And it could be something that they don't want to do, but they need to get something out of the meeting and figure out how it's relevant to their recovery. Adults are problem solvers and want to know how new information can be applied in a practical setting. So when we're teaching these skills, when we're teaching about self esteem and communication skills, well, those are all great for you. And let's talk about how they can help you in your relationships and how they can help you at work. But let's also talk about how you can teach them to your kids so they have these skills and it can help them as they grow. They need to feel part of a learning community which provides both encouragement and serves as a sounding board for ideas, anxieties and concerns. So when we're doing this group and if you're doing a one hour seminar at the library and you're never going to see these people again, this is a little bit harder to develop. But if you're doing an ongoing psychoeducational series, you know, we really want the people to work together. So break them out into small groups and have them do activities. So they're working together and they're encouraging each other and they're developing and understanding that, you know, other people have questions and concerns and anxieties. Adults are motivated to learn in order to cope with, with specific life changing events. They want to learn. What do they need to do? You know, okay, I had a baby, how do I do this now? You know, I am motivated to learn. And whenever I go through a change in my life, like after I had my son, I ordered like every book I could find on having babies that were in the neonatal intensive care unit. When I started my farm, I ordered every book I could find on having a small homestead farm. And we're motivated to learn about things that are relevant when our life changes. And we're motivated to learn when we have a use for the knowledge or skill being sought. So again, you have to make it relevant. Why do I care? Education is provided in a variety of ways, including formal classes, handouts, and informal meetings. People can learn in a bunch of different ways. They can learn through podcasts, they can learn through videos, they can learn through books, they can learn through talking to somebody, they can learn through classes. It's a matter of how they prefer to learn. Print, electronic and other multimedia educational materials have become increasingly available. A lot of times you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can go online and find worksheets on depression or anxiety or assertiveness skills or life skills or whatever it is. So a little searching and you can find a lot of the resources that you need. You can also encourage clients to before group, go online, or after group, before the next group, go online and find three resources that pertain to the particular topic. When you're doing client education, though, you need to be sensitive to the characteristics and needs of the different clients that are in your group, their family, and significant others. So if we're doing education about relapse prevention, we need to be sensitive to who's in the group. When we used to do family education at the facility that I taught at Family Education, the kids would be there, the grandparents would be there, the parents would be there. You know, we had people of every single age and every single ability that were, that were in that room a lot of times. So it's a matter of figuring out, okay, now how do I present to this crew and keep everybody engaged? And so we Wanted to pay attention to the physical and environmental needs. You know, could they hear us adequately? Was it an environment that was safe for the children to be running around? We held it in the cafeteria, so it was safe. Was it comfortable for people to sit in? I mean, a lot of times we would only have adult sized chairs, so the kids would be sitting up there swinging their legs and, you know, they wouldn't have anything to do. So we started leaving some of the cafeteria tables out and giving the kids coloring books that they could work in while they were, while we were doing the educational, the lecture portion. Timing and scheduling is important. You know, kids and older adults tend to have some shorter attention spans. So you want to pay attention to how much time can this person focus and make sure that you're not overdoing it. You don't want to do a three hour group. Cognitive and learning abilities are paramount. If you're doing a group that has adults and children, you know, you need to remember that children don't think the same way that adults do. So you may need to present things in a different way to the kids. If you're talking about the roles of the family in the addicted family, the mascot, the hero, you know, those are fun things, I guess you can say to act out, to do skits on, and you can ask kids, you know, what is a mascot and what does a mascot do? And a lot of times if you focus on the children and get them engaged, the parents and the grandparents kind of get engaged because they're watching the children get engaged. Learning by association. But you want to pay attention to what people are able to comprehend. People who are in early recovery, they're in detox or just got out of detox, may not be able to comprehend some things. They may still be a little foggy. So it's important to give handouts at this point in time because they may not remember a lot, but they can go back and review their handouts later and then ask questions. Pay attention to language. If English is not their primary language, then making sure that you either have an interpreter or you go slowly enough and you provide information in their native language when possible. When you're talking with children again, remember they have a lot of children. When I'm talking about the young ones, they haven't achieved formal operational thought. So they think very concretely. So you don't want to use a lot of metaphors and, you know, examples that are up here. You want to use examples that they've seen, that they've experienced in order to understand what's going on? Language. Talked about that and cultural. You want to pay attention to what different cultures think and what their opinions are about this particular topic. Some cultures have very distinct opinions about mental health and mental illness and substance abuse and what a person should do and shouldn't do. So you want to be cognizant of that. If you are prescribing any sort of support behaviors or anything like that, to be sensitive to the fact that in this culture this is how addiction is handled or this is how depression is handled. Educational sessions are typically offered in 60 to 90 minute blocks. Just because that's easy. You know, people don't want to come all the way to your facility for a 20 minute class. But some people have difficulty maintaining attention for that long. I know I do. If you're doing a block like that, you want to try to chunk it so no more than 10 or 15 minutes of lecture and then have them do an activity or, you know, start asking some questions and then do another chunk of teaching and then application sessions usually consist of a lecture and exercise and are presented with media supplements. You want to have things present your concepts so people can see them, they can hear about them, and then they can work with them, they can apply them in scenarios or apply them to their own life. Start out with the lecture portion. 10 or 15 minutes. This is the way my groups go. 10 or 15 minutes of this is what we're talking about today. Then we do an exercise so people can practice applying it. And then I ask them, okay, knowing this material now, knowing this concept or tool, how could it have benefited you last week? And have them talk about that. And then we go back around the room and I say, okay, now that you know this material and you see how it can benefit you, how are you going to remember to use it? And how do you see using it in the upcoming week? So they're working with it and applying it to their life. Educational topics we might talk about include addiction as a biopsychosocial disease. So it affects the body, it affects your mental health, and it affects your relationships. We can talk about the recovery process, life skills, health behaviors, relapse, warning signs and triggers. Resources available for clients, family and community members to support the person in recovery and to prevent addiction. So what resources are out there that we can start providing to people to prevent them from even developing this problem? And what resources are out there for people who also have domestic violence issues or for people who have transportation issues? Help them get linked up and know how to find those services? And we may talk about recovery planning. What does that look like? What is this transition going to be like when somebody leaves residential treatment, for example? And how are is the person you know, how are you going to stay clean, sober and healthy? And what is needed from your support system to help you stay clean, sober and healthy? So remember that each learner absorbs and retains information differently. Learning style, as I mentioned earlier, refers to the way the person takes in that information. And some people do it by reading or by seeing something, some people do it by hearing, by lecture, by podcast. And some people just have to work with the information. So the example I usually give people to help them identify what type of learner they are, I say, you know, when you get a new phone or a new device at home, how do you figure out how to work it? Do you have somebody tell you and just listen? Do you read the manual or watch YouTube videos, or do you just start pushing buttons until you figure out how to make it work? Challenges to learning are things that we need to deal with learning and memory deficits are often present in people who've been abusing substances when they're still in that fog. So we need to consider this when we're choosing the teaching approach used and the amount of information given at any one time. And again, if people are still in a fog or for some reason have issues, some cognitive issues, providing a handout so they can review it later, even if visual learning is not their primary learning style, that will give them something they can review and then they can ask questions or they can look it up further on the Internet. The matrix model of outpatient treatment, which you can find on the SAMHSA website, illustrates an approach that recognizes impairments and delivers information to the client accordingly. The matrix process is gradual. The focus is always on the present court, issues aren't immediately addressed, and complex information is provided in smaller units and presented in steps. First, you need to do this. You need to make a list of things. Then you need to go over the list with your counselor, and then you know, it's presented in small manageable steps that the person can do so they're not trying to remember or manage multiple things. Other challenges to learning include the age of the learner. Older learners may experience a decline in vision, hearing, short term memory skills, and reaction time. So if you've got older learners in your group, moderate the pace of the presentation periodically take breaks. Even if you're just taking a break, you know, for example, to go over to your water bottle and take a drink that gives them a chance cognitively to catch up. Some people are also reflective learners and they need that break anyway. Even if they're not older, have both visual and auditory formats. So if they're having trouble seeing, they can hear it, and if they're having trouble hearing, they can see it. If you're working with an older population, try to make sure that the text that you're using is big enough. You know, if you're writing on a whiteboard, it's going to be big enough. Try to make it legible. And if you're talking to a group that may have some hearing impairments, make sure when you're speaking, speaking, you're speaking to them, not talking to the whiteboard and hoping that they can hear you. You know, make sure that they see your face and they can see your lips. Basically, look for nonverbal signs of confusion or boredom. If they start fidgeting or looking quizzically at you, you know, stop. And you can either ask them, you know, is there something I can clarify? Or you can back up, you know, maybe you realize that you made a huge leap there and you need to back up and apply it. Or give an example. One of the first things I do in order to avoid calling people out right away if they're not going, excuse me, is if I see somebody looking quizzically at me, I will give an example of how to use the topic or give an example of what we're talking about. If we're talking about passive aggressive behavior, you know, I may act out what that might look like so people can say, oh, okay, I know what you're talking about now. Because we don't always call it the same thing. You know, there are different phrases and terms for different things. Provide enough time to complete any assignments. So if you're breaking people out in group to do something, make sure you're giving them enough time to do it so they don't feel hurried when they do it. They're going to remember it. So give them time to actually use all their senses to get that knowledge in their brain. When you have younger learners, they may not have the same level of cognitive, emotional or social development nor the attention span of an adult. Think attention span is roughly equivalent up to about age 10 of the age of the child. So a 2 year old is going to have about a 2 minute attention span and a 10 year old is going to have about A 10 minute attention span. And some people are lucky enough to develop longer attention spans after that. I don't think I ever did, but you know, so we want to work with the people in chunks that are proportional to how long they can, you know, really pay good attention. So again, chunk it. And this is really helpful even with adults anymore. Most adults prefer small chunks of information, two 3 minute YouTube videos or a 10 minute presentation followed by an activity instead of a whole bunch of lecture, like a college class or something. Use developmentally appropriate materials and activities. If you're working with kids, you know, use art therapy, use physical activities. Let them act things out. They're not going to be able to write an essay. They're not going to be able to get up in front of the room and teach a concept, gamify it when at all possible to make it more fun. Do Hangman or a developmentally appropriate game. An eight year old probably doesn't know how to play Jeopardy. So you want to choose something that they are familiar with. Jenga is a great one. If you want to put certain concepts on the blocks, then when they pull the blocks out, they've got to read what's on the block or give it to you to read. If they can't read yet, look for. Make activities interactive and encourage participation. So encourage people to share their thoughts and their feelings and, you know, periodically stop if you're working with a younger audience and ask them, you know, if everybody understands or how everybody's feeling or can. Who in here can give me an example of that? The best way when you're working with adults and with children, instead of putting it out there who can do this, is to put people on the spot. So you want to make sure people are comfortable before you put them on the spot. But if you feel like that's a better way to go, then you can go, okay, Sammy, can you give me an example of this? And June, what is one question you might have about this and have them feel a little bit more obligated to participate. Especially in adult groups, if you say, does anybody have any questions? They're all going to look at you with this blank stare like, can we go yet? So instead of doing that, pick people out and ask them, you know, what question they might have or how they think they could apply it or something where you know, you're going to get some sort of response and provide enough time to complete any psychomotor tasks. So if you're having them draw a picture of their family, for example, make sure to give them, you know, a good 10 minutes to do it so they have time. You don't want to say, all right, you've got Five minutes. Let's go. Go, go, go, go, go. It takes them two or three minutes just to sit down at the table and get their crayons and everything out. Teaching strategies According to Dale's cone of experience, and this is evidently important for you to remember for your test, adults generally remember 90% of what they do. So we want to have people work with. We want to have them complete workbook entries. We want to have them talk about how they could apply it. We want to have them teach it. May teach a little part of it, maybe to the group. We want to have them act it out in skits. We want to have them do it, manipulate it. They remember 70% of what they say and write. So, you know, have them talk about things. Talking groups propose questions, questions and ask for solutions to issues. They remember 50% of what they hear and see. So our lecture is good, but they're only going to remember about 50% of it. So just bear that in mind when you're trying to teach something. They remember 30% of what they see alone. So if you're reading something like, think about the last time you followed a recipe or you read a recipe online and you weren't actually in the kitchen doing it. How much of that recipe did you remember? You know, probably not much, but if you actually were following it in the kitchen, then you probably remember a little bit more of it. We remember 20% of what we hear and 10% of what we read. So it's important to really help people. If they're reading something like the Big Book, they want to periodically stop and apply that. You know, why is this important to me? Why did it make it into the Big Book? How can I relate to this? And you can do that through discussions. You can do that through having them fill out journal entries. Most people hate journal entries, so discussions are often better. And, you know, if we're talking about what they say, that gets us up into that 70% area. So you want to make sure people are manipulating the material cognitively and working with it. Teaching from a multicultural perspective is also important and recognizes that there's a classroom of learners who vary according to their social and cultural characteristics. So culturally responsive teaching is defined by how the educator develops teaching approaches to address the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and performance styles of diverse students. So if you're working with a group who is of Asian descent, and you're working with a group who is, you know, of white descent, Caucasian descent, you know, they may have different experiences, they may not, but they may, depending on you Know, if you're working over with a group over in Thailand and you're working with a group over in Idaho in the United States, you know they're going to have different experiences. So we need to pay attention to that. It acknowledges the legitimacy of cultural heritage and different ethnic groups. And it also acknowledges the legitimacy of different perspectives on recovery, on health, on healing, on mental illness. It builds bridges of meaningfulness between social and learning experiences so people can see how learning this information can help enhance their relationships and their functioning the world out there. It uses a wide variety of instructional techniques that are connected to different learning styles. We've talked about those, teaches students well, let's go back to that a second. We've talked a lot about helping people manipulate the material and apply it and teach it and skits and that. When we're talking about visual, give them handouts, give them written word, give them pictographs. Those are helpful. Have them create pictographs or collages that represent what's going on. That's visual. And when we're talking about hearing, there's lecture, but then there's also discussion. So encourage discussion between people. One of the things I used to do when I taught at UF for our final exam and even our midterm, I would hand out the exams, and then I would break people into groups of four, and they would be able to discuss each question and what they thought was the correct answer to the question. Now, everybody chose their own answer, but they were able to bounce ideas off of one another, so it was easier for them, and it helped them solidify that information in their mind. Culturally responsive teaching teaches students to know and embrace their own and each other's cultural heritages. We want to focus on, you know, what are some similarities, but what are some unique differences that are really cool and awesome about this other culture? It incorporates multicultural information, resources and materials in the subjects and skills. So we want to make sure that we're providing information that's culturally sensitive. Culturally responsive teaching, diversity and motivation. Colon. Culturally Responsive Teaching is the name of a book that provides specific culturally responsive teaching strategies. So if you work in a diverse treatment center, this is a great book to have in your arsenal. Culturally responsive teaching guidelines. You want to communicate respect, you know, because you're not going to know every culture. Just understand that when you go into a room, you're not going to know the culture of every person in there. It doesn't matter where you are. So communicate respect. Give yourself permission to feel uncomfortable with a culture that is new to you. Develop listening skills and never be shy about asking if you're being understood or asking for the client's cultural perspectives, such as how would this be viewed or approached in your culture? One of the places that I used to live was the national headquarters for the Hare Krishnas. You know, I was very unfamiliar with that culture. So when working with people who are Hare Krishna in counseling, you know, there was a huge learning curve for me. And instead of going, well, I don't know what to do with this, talking with them and going, okay, help me understand your cultural values as they relate to marriage relationships and as they relate to whatever issue we were discussing so I could understand what was important to them. For more information on cultural competence, view the videos Improving cultural competence parts one, two and three on our YouTube channel@allceus.com YouTube so that's three hours worth of cultural information. Let's talk a little bit more about psychoeducation because we're going to do a lot of that, especially if you work in a clinic setting. Psychoed is health education combined with behavioral counseling. The counseling component deals with emotions or perceptions, coping, relaxation and self care. So we're going to talk about, you know, how do you feel about this particular technique? How would you feel practicing this technique? When we talk about this concept, what feelings does it bring up for you and what perceptions do you have? It teaches people about their problems, how to treat them and recognize signs of relapse. It teaches coping strategies and problem solving skills to families, friends and caregivers to help them deal more effectively with the individual in recovery. Psychoeducation typically consists of a highly structured format providing problem focused or skill building education in one or two hour time limited groups. And that's a long time. Two hours is a really long time. So one hour is usually what most people can handle. And you want to follow a structure of building upon skills and tools. There's opportunity for discussion of the presented material, but there's very little true processing of personal issues. So like I said, in my groups I would teach the concept and then, you know, maybe unhooking from your emotions, that would be the concept for the group. And then I would go around the room and I'd say, how might this have been helpful for you last week? And they can talk about a situation where that may have been appropriate. We're not talking in depth about what happened, we're just talking about how that skill would apply. And then how do you see yourself applying this in the upcoming weeks? And tell me more about that. So we're not going into depth on any trauma or issues. And if the client starts to go there, you know, there are, you'll learn ways to help redirect them and get them, you know, to a place where it's not monopolizing the group at that point. And then you either excuse them so they can go see their primary therapist if they have to do that right then, or make sure they understand that their, their struggle is very valid and you hear them, you will make time after group to talk to them. Groups are not a good option for people who are unable to maintain confidentiality. People who engage in antisocial behaviors, gossiping, back talking, hateful behaviors, and people who are not motivated to participate in treatment because they'll be more disruptive. You know, very rarely are they just going to sit through group if at best they'll fall asleep. But that can even be triggering, especially to people who are recovering from opiate addiction. Counseling groups have more ambiguity, emphasize emotions and learning outcomes are individualistic, not for the group as a whole. So a counseling group is really going to focus on those past issues and, and what each person gets out of it is going to be different. When people walk out of a psychoeducational group, we hope they all got roughly the same information. Effective psychosocial education interventions need to have elements of practicality, concrete problem solving, incremental shaping of skills. So what does that mean? That means we don't expect them to have it mastered by the time they walk out. We want them to know, okay, there are these six steps to developing self esteem, for example, so what is the first step you're going to take? And you know, how are you going to do that? And help them work through the process and it identifies specific attainable goals. What are you going to do between now and next week? Benefits derived from psychoeducation include mastery experiences and increased levels of personal empowerment for the clients. Psychoeducational strategies enhance people's sense of dignity and self esteem because we're giving them increased responsibility for self care. We're not saying I need to do this for you. We're saying, here are the tools, you got this. And we're placing a higher level of trust in their hands. We're saying, I know you can do this, I know you can cope with this. I know you can solve this problem. Psychoeducation increases individuals resilience to distress. It provides coping skills, improves their ability to comprehend and manage their own life, and improves their sense of meaning in life. When we deliver psychoeducation we are responsible for fostering information transfer to make sure that they're getting what we're saying. We want to facilitate emotional discharge. Now we're not talking about, you know, gushing emotions, we're not talking about a therapy group, but we want them to connect it with a feeling and see how this tool can help them deal with their emotions. We want to provide information about medication or other treatment regimens that can help people. And sometimes this is a standalone group on its own. And we want to provide assistance towards self help. So what resources are out there that can help you learn this skill a little bit better? Family psychoeducational groups help family members prevent the individual with the substance abuse or co occurring disorder from relapsing and provides them with information they need and the coping skills that will help them with their loved one's disorder. Recovery is a family process, so we need to educate the family on okay, Jim Bob used to react this way to stress, you know, maybe he'd had no coping skills at all. And these are the coping skills that he's learned and this is how he's going to try to react now. And this is how you can support him in these new behaviors. An associated goal is supporting the family's burdens, including financial, social and psychological burdens, in dealing with the loved one's substance abuse issues. So we want to help them reach out to those resources that can help them help the person recover. And we want to help them reach out to resources they can help themselves recover. Addiction impacts everybody in the family. It's not just an identified patient, like somebody who breaks their leg. You know, addiction really has an impact on everybody. And everybody is probably going to have some issues that they need to deal with either in self help groups or mutual support or actual counseling and therapy. Counselors function in providing client, family and community education to aid in the prevention, early intervention and post treatment transition periods. So there's a lot we can do. We can do prevention activities in the community. The great thing about that is we are going to provide information that can help prevent mental health and substance abuse problems. But we also connect with people who may be experiencing these issues and we're a friendly face and that makes it more welcoming for them to come to treatment. Early intervention services. You know, these are great because we're getting in there before this is. Whatever the issue is has really significantly disrupted their life. And a lot of work can be done in early intervention providing skills and tools because other things are still there, other foundational supports are still there. So early intervention provides a lot of skills and tools. Additionally, outreach and education are cost effective and can be provided in a variety of places within the community, including community centers, churches, libraries, and schools. Effective education efforts are developmentally appropriate culturally responsive Presented continuously throughout the continuum of services from prevention all the way through maintenance and relapse prevention. Designed to provide practical information to clients and their families and community members who are there to help them well, thank you for listening to today's podcast and stay tuned for next week's installment. All of Us at All CEUS wish you great success on your exam. Once you're certified or licensed, please remember to visit all CEUs for all of your continuing education needs. We offer unlimited CEUs for $59 for addiction and mental health counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists. If you're still thinking about becoming an addiction counselor, all CEUs offers the training you need in three different formats. You can choose online Multimedia, Self Study, Self Study plus Live webinars, or even Face to Face Weekend intensives, which meet one weekend per month for 12 months. We can even present a training series at your facility. Just email supportlce.com to schedule it. To learn more, you can also visit allce.com acer that's allce.com acer thank you.