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Get the Skills to Become an Addictions & Mental Health Worker

Addictions and Mental Health Worker supporting a patient.
Learn what it takes to provide support, understand behaviours, and provide treatment to those who need it

49-Week Addictions & Mental Health Worker + Internship Program Online or On-Campus in Windsor, ON

Addictions and Mental Health Workers support professional Counsellors and or organizations in their day to day duties. Addictions workers participate and provide administrative support to individuals and group therapy sessions. They help support professionals who counsel individuals struggling with drug addiction, alcohol addiction, gambling addiction, and eating disorders.

Addictions workers do not counsel patients themselves, however they work alongside certified professionals who also work with a patient’s family members or close friends. Addictions workers assist sociologists, psychologists, or psychiatrists in ensuring treatment goals are being met and attend staff meetings regarding patient care.

The best way to see if CCHST is the right fit for you is to come to a Personalized Information Session. You can meet one of our Admissions Advisers and get your questions answered. Get a Personalized Information Session Now or Get more info.


Addictions & Mental Health Worker

12-Month Diploma | $24.18 – $35/hr*


  • Graduates hired by hospitals, government and mental health agencies & shelters
  • Occupations include Addiction Worker, Outreach Worker, Community Support Worker
  • Advance into Social Work, Counselling, Criminal Justice and more!


*Source: https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/


Is a Career as an Addictions and Mental Health Worker Right for You? Take the CCHST “Addictions and Mental Health Worker Career Training Readiness Quiz”

This fun, online quiz takes 3-minutes to complete and you’ll get a personalized report. Identify your strengths and social style plus the training and positions you’re best suited for. Get Your Addictions and Mental Health Worker Career Training Readiness Score Now >>

Becoming an Addictions & Mental Health Worker

At CCHST, we offer a 49-week program, with 240 hours of internship with on-the-job training, offsite with potential employers. Our Addictions with Mental Health Worker program teaches students the necessary theory and practical skills to work with individuals and families with social, physical, emotional, and mental health concerns. Our program explores how to best support those through assessment techniques and case management skills.

Our curriculum covers psychology, sociology, pharmacology, preventative health promotion, crisis intervention, diverse populations, sociological perspectives on mental health, case management and interview skills, how to work with individual clients and families, just to name a few.

Choose to complete this program either fully online or in-person at our Windsor campus.

I am so happy that I chose Canadian College of Health Science & Technology! Everyone from the administration, instructors, support staff and students have been amazing. Any questions I had were always answered immediately. I highly recommend this college to anyone. I had been out of school for so long and was nervous if I had made the right choice. I completed the Addictions and Mental Health Worker program. The encouragement that I received was way beyond expectations!
Nicole D., Addictions & Mental Health Worker Grad

Program Outline

Intro to Computers & Microsoft Office

This module will provide students with an overview of computer applications, the Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office Suite including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Students will develop the professional skills needed in modern business world through a series of projects and simulations in an interactive digital environment.

Business Communications & Interpersonal Skills

This module will provide students the tools to develop business English and interpersonal communication skills necessary to function in the modern business setting. In addition, this module provides a review of English grammar, sentence structure and punctuation as they apply to business communications. Students will develop effective interpersonal communication skills for managing personal and working relationships. The importance of diversity inclusion and teamwork will also be explored.

Basic Psychology

This module introduces students to the scientific study of human behaviour and mental processes. This course provides an overview of the basic concepts in Psychology. Topics include biology and behaviour, states of consciousness, motivation and emotion, development, disorders, social psychology and personality. Human Services Resources & Networking This course helps students understand human behaviour from multiple perspectives. This subject establishes a framework to assess needs and explores the various services available in the community. This is accomplished by guiding the student through a series of assignments to enhance their evaluation skills and knowledge.

Communication Strategies

This module helps students to communicate information between a sender and a receiver. Communication strategies can be verbal, nonverbal or visual. Integrating all the strategies together will allow you to see the most success. Topics include language, presenting your message, human communication, perception and the self, communicating with family and friends, communicating in groups and on the job, public communication, organization and support, informative and persuasive speaking.

Counselling Relationship – Best Practices

This module helps students understand the process of counselling the parties of a human relationship in an effort to recognize, and to better manage or reconcile, troublesome differences and repeating patterns of stress upon the relationship. Topics include ethical decision making, process and skills, skills for understanding, loss and crisis.

Case Management & Assessment Techniques

This module will enable the student to become aware of the various testing procedures and begin to learn the methods in which an appropriate and accurate assessment can be made. Subjects covered include laboratory testing, psychometric assessment, interviews, services, analysis, situations, differential diagnosis and the matching hypothesis. The student will be able to identify characteristics of impulsive drug-seeking behaviour. The student will be able to prepare social work related written reports and communicate the progress of a client. Various methods of recording will be explored, including handwritten, computerized and microfilm.

Interviewing Techniques

This topic will enable the student to define communication skills and demonstrate how to use them effectively in many kinds of situations. A group of core communication skills necessary to any interview in counselling, nursing, social work, personnel work, or information gathering are explored.

Relapse Prevention & Intervention

This module provides the student with an understanding of relapse as a natural part of the recovery process. The student will be offered a range of strategies and techniques to assist in minimizing and preventing the harmful effects of prolonged periods of relapse during the journey of recovery. Students are guided through the entire relapse process to better understand why relapse occurs and learn how to prevent its devastating effects by considering the application of some basic principles introduced in the CENAPS Model of treatment developed by Terence T. Gorski and Merlene Miller.

Group Facilitation Concepts

This module will provide the student with an overview of the nature of group work in a social services setting and an opportunity to explore relevant techniques and exercises designed to enhance group work.

Preventative Health Promotion

In this module, students are introduced to various health and relationship concerns that are relevant in chemically dependent individuals. The student will learn to evaluate the effectiveness of program delivery and begin to create new ideas for promoting healthier lifestyle choices within a range of settings and diverse Populations.

Fundamentals of Addiction

This module provides the foundation for further in-depth subjects as students continue in the study of addiction. The basic pharmacological nature and effects of a range of psychoactive chemicals are presented with an emphasis on challenging myths of which chemicals cost society the greatest in terms of economic costs and social burden of human suffering. Specific target populations are explored, focusing on women, children/adolescents, ethnic minorities, elderly, disabled and those suffering from mental illness in the family. Assessment, intervention strategies and treatment options are presented along with the most common problems encountered during the duration of with respects to Substance Abuse and Mental Illness.

Pharmacology

This module provides a base of drug information – the basic pharmacological nature and effects of a range of psychoactive chemicals are presented. Students will build knowledge relating to drug treatments/usage to various body systems and associated diseased states. Students will understand the effects of drugs on the chemically dependent population and Mental Illness Toxicity, allergies and drug abuse will be addressed.

Secondary Traumatic Stress

This module explores how secondary traumatic stress results from helping or wanting to help a traumatized or suffering person. With a focus on self-awareness, the foundation for examining the skills required for effective interpersonal relationships are presented. Through readings and a series of simulated situational exercises the students gain insight into their personal strengths and weaknesses, improve their perceptions of self and skill level in relating to others. Areas covered include the identification of trauma, coping with secondary traumatic stress, and ethical issues associated with secondary traumatic stress.

Criminal Behaviour – Mental Health & Addictions

This module will address several subtopics related to criminal behaviours exhibited by those with mental illness or addictions issues. Content includes incarcerated options and services for traumatized adults and adolescent; introduction, method, results, discussions, and treatment options from criminal court divisions; and neurobiological and theoretical areas of mental illness/addictions and criminal behaviour.

Abnormal Psychology and Mental Health

This module encompasses all aspects of abnormal psychology. Throughout the course, knowledge of abnormalities within a historical, social and cultural context will be reviewed. Along with abnormal patterns of behaviour, the studying of explaining, predicting and changing abnormal behaviours will be explored. Case studies, current issues and trends and models of abnormalities will also be examined.

Concurrent Disorders

This module explores concurrent disorders, causes of concurrent disorders, interrelationship of the problems, treatment methods for concurrent disorders, and how to interact with someone suffering from concurrent disorders.

Sociological Perspectives on Mental Health

This module involves working with those in helping professions related to mental health. Content includes methods that service providers give treatment; overview of sociality, psychiatry, and the disability and minor rights movements of people suffering from mental illness; and sociological aspects related to various mental health issues.

Diversity of First Nations & Selected Populations in Health & Illness

This module will encompass addiction, mental illness, criminal behaviour, poverty, and suicide as they relate to First Nations communities. Diversity of other populations, gender, elderly, youth, and the LGBT community will be explored.

Working with Families & Youth

The purpose of this module is to provide the student with an introduction to the issues surrounding addiction that affect family members specifically. The main concepts of co- dependency are introduced, both in the context of the family and the workers own risk of co-dependency, which could result in countertransference. This module addresses the relevant issues involved in family recovery pertaining to addiction and other dysfunctional behaviour. It provides a history of family therapy that includes therapeutic theories, general systems concepts, relapse prevention of family treatment as well as the process of Intervention and basic strategies of interviewing families.

Admission & Discharge Assessment Techniques

This module entails an overview of the various tools utilized by counsellors to analyze areas of concern in a bio-psycho- social realm. The Comprehensive Assessment consists of an eight page questionnaire that deals with Screening, Assessment and Diagnosis of Substance Abuse or Dependence. This course will allow the student to utilize the tools in administering, scoring and interpreting the scores to navigate throughout the system for the benefit of the client.

Crisis Prevention Intervention – CPI

This module will prepare the student to define and identify the different types of crisis and the techniques used for intervention. The components of intervention will be explored together with the related effects, routines, problems and time limits involved.

Job Search, Interview Skills & Resume Writing

This module will provide students with the skills to prepare for employment, research employment opportunities within their field of study and be successful in their future career. Some of the topics included will be the preparation of a resume, interview and cover letter.

Internship

Students will complete 240 hours of internship at sites including rehabilitation facilities, mental health clinic settings (hospitals, community houses), and social service organizations.

Start Dates

29-Jan-24
22-Apr-24
27-May-24
17-Jun-24
15-Jul-24
26-Aug-24
23-Sep-24
21-Oct-24
2-Dec-24

Practical “On-The-Job” Training

We believe in learning by doing. That’s why our Addictions & Mental Health Worker + Internship program emphasizes practical, hands-on training that allows you to apply your knowledge in real-world settings. During your internship, you’ll gain valuable skills and build the confidence needed to excel in your chosen field.

Career Opportunities

Upon completion of this program, you may work in a variety of roles within the healthcare sector. The program paves the way for engaging in meaningful work under titles such as:

  • Addiction Worker
  • Peer Support Worker
  • Harm Reduction Worker
  • Withdrawal Management Worker
  • And more!

Admission Requirements

  • Candidates must submit a copy of their Secondary School Diploma (OSSD, GED, or better), if this is not available they will be required to pass the Scholastic Level Exam (SLE).
  • Candidates must also submit a Pre-Admission Medical Report and Immunizations may be required for practicum.

Enroll Now

The Addictions & Mental Health Worker + Internship program is approved as a vocational program under the Ontario Career College Act, 2005.

Is a Career as an Addictions and Mental Health Worker Right For You? Get More Info…

To learn more about a career as an Addictions and Mental Health Worker and to find out if CCHST is right for you, fill out the form on this page to receive more information.

For immediate questions, call 519-977-1222