The Politics of Drug & Alcohol Policy

The Politics of Drug and Alcohol Policy module (CDAS11004) examines the origins and development of policies relating to alcohol and other drugs in Scotland, the UK and internationally.  The overall aim is to provide participants with a framework for assessing policy formulation at local, national and international levels.

The module will help you understand the complex world of drug and alcohol policy development through the multiple influences of politics and ideology, evidence, advocacy, lobbying, and stakeholders’ interests.  Lectures draw on theoretical models and concepts on policy change and processes such as policy framing, multiple streams analysis, policy diffusion and governance.  Attention is given to how drug and alcohol issues are defined, constructed and problematized, the role of policy communities and networks, political discourses and ideas and values.

We critically examine key contemporary debates on new approaches to drug and alcohol policies and the impact of drug and broader social policies on people who use alcohol and other drugs and special populations (such as injecting drug users, families and communities affected by drugs).  

At the end of this module you will be able to:

• Demonstrate extensive, detailed and critical knowledge and understanding of current policy issues (relating to drugs, alcohol and other substances).
• Apply critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis to assessing governance and the policy-making processes in relating to drugs, alcohol and other substances.
• Demonstrate effective communication, ICT skills and subject knowledge by presenting complex ideas and analysis in an innovative format to peers and specialists.
• Develop innovative and evidence-based responses to problems and issues relating to substance use.

This is a SCQF Level 11 (Masters) module and upon successful completion of two assessments participants will be awarded 20 credits.

This CPD module is aimed at people with a degree in social, health and related sciences who wish to develop expertise in this area and/or people with professional work experience in the drug/alcohol related sector.

To view the module descriptor, please visit Programme Specifications and Module Descriptors 

 

Delivery 

This will be delivered on a Distance Learning basis with live online sessions every Tuesday 7-8pm.

  

Course presenter

Modules will be delivered by staff from the Contemporary Drug & Alcohol Studies programme: Dr April Shaw (Programme Leader), Prof Aileen O'Gorman and Dr Kate Miller.

 

Funding

This course may be available on a fully funded basis to some delegates.  Further details, including regarding eligibility, are available under Funding Support.

If you have any questions, please contact us at cpd@uws.ac.uk 

 

NOTE: This is a university module and upon approval of your application, you will be invited to register and then supported to complete enrolment. To enrol on the university system, the first step involves security set-up using the Microsoft Authenticator app; you will need to ensure that you have a compatible smartphone.

Further enrolment information is available at the Student Information Portal.

To access this module via the CPD route, individuals should be ordinarily resident in Scotland.  

 

Further study 

In addition to being available on a CPD basis, this module is part of our PgDip Contemporary Drug & Alcohol Studies.

Modules available through the UWS CPD Centre include:

• Understanding Substance Use
• Contemporary Responses to Substance Use
• The Politics of Drug & Alcohol Policy

For further information regarding this postgraduate programme, please contact ask@uws.ac.uk

For further information regarding any of the above modules, please contact cpd@uws.ac.uk