Description
This 3-hour course examines the very important elements surrounding counseling individuals with substance abuse and HIV/ADS. The student will understand the issues of treating HIV/AIDS in the Criminal Justice System, identifying treatment goals, and understanding the continuum of care. This course is an update of skills and knowledge for professionals who are directly or indirectly involved with substance abusers who are HIV positive. This is a basic introductory course; consequently it does not cover related HIV/AIDS subjects such as basic HIV/AIDS information, mental health issues, medical issues, prevention, and funding issues. The course includes both non-criminal justice and criminal justice settings, including probation and parole. The student will also explore attitudes and issues that are specific to HIV/AIDS and substance abuse.
Goals / Objectives
Upon completion of this internet based course, the participant will be able to:
1. Understand the treatment model
2. Identify the training, attitudes, issues, and skills for counseling individuals with substance abuse and HIV/AIDS
3. Identify counselor and client barriers to effective treatment
4. Understand the issues of treating HIV/AIDS in the Criminal Justice System
5. Identify new treatment goals
6. Understand a continuum of care
7. Understand the process of counseling terminally ill clients
Your Course Instructor:
Robert A. Shearer, PhD
Dr. Robert A. Shearer is a retired professor of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University. He received his Ph.D. in Counseling and Psychology from Texas A & M University, Commerce. Prior to teaching Criminal Justice, he taught Educational Psychology at Mississippi State University on campus and in the extension program across rural Mississippi during the civil rights era.
He has been teaching, training, consulting and conducting research in the fields of Criminal Justice, human behavior, and addictions for over thirty-six years. He is the author of over sixty professional and refereed articles in Criminal Justice and behavior. He is also the author of Interviewing: Theories, techniques, and practices, 5th edition published by Prentice Hall. Dr. Shearer has also created over a dozen measurement, research, and assessment instruments in Criminal Justice and addictions.
He has been a psychotherapist in private practice and served as a consultant to dozens of local, state, and national agencies. His interests continue to be substance abuse program assessment and evaluation. He has taught courses in interviewing, human behavior, substance abuse counseling, drugs-crime-social policy, assessment and treatment planning, and educational psychology. He has also taught several university level psychology courses in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division, led group therapy in prison, trained group therapists, and served as an expert witness in various courts of law.
He has been the president of the International Association of Addictions and Offender Counseling and the editor of the Journal of Addictions and Offender Counseling as well as a member of many Criminal Justice, criminology, and counseling professional organizations prior to retirement.