Substance Misuse in the Undergraduate Curriculum - Local Implementaion of a National Curriculum Priority

‘Substance Misuse in the Undergraduate Medical Curriculum’ is a national curriculum development project is funded by the Department of Health (England), and coordinated by the International Centre for Drug Policy at St Georges, University of London. This presentation focuses on the implementation at the University of East Anglia of the project, which has focused on the following key aims, indicating that on graduation students should be able to: • recognise, assess and understand the management of substance misuse and associated health and social problems and contribute to the prevention of addiction. • be aware of the effects of substance misuse on their own behaviour and health and on their professional practice and conduct. • challenge the stigma and discrimination that are often experienced by people with addiction The project takes a patient centred approach in recognising that substance misuse is not just a specialised area of practice concerned with treating addicts or an abstract issue of public health; it is one of the worst health problems doctors encounter many times a day. It impacts not just on the health but also the wider lives of those misusing substances, their families, their colleagues and wider society. Those who misuse substances will inevitably at some stage be seen by doctors, who therefore have a vital role to play, in recognising substance misuse, and in assessing and managing the associated problems. This applies equally to hospital doctors and general practitioners, as much as to specialists in addiction; because all these staff will encounter substance misuse every day. Part of the government’s response to this problem is to address the education of professionals who will deal with substance misuse. This presentation summarises the process of curriculum mapping, review and implementation of nationally coordinated substance misuse learning objectives at the University of East Anglia.