Vocational training in illicit drug addiction: Equipping health care practitioners with addiction treatment competences and techniques (CARE4SUD) is a project which is funded by the Erasmus + Programme of the European Union (KA 220  VET – Cooperation partnerships in vocational education and training)  and it is developed by Klaipėdos Ernesto Galvanausko Profesinio Mokymo Centras (Lithuania) in partnership with Institut Za Raziskave In Razvoj Utrip Zavod (Slovenia), Sosu Ostjylland (Denmark),  Universidade do Porto (Portugal), Direcția de Asistență Socială și Medicală Cluj-Napoca (Romania) and Institute of Social Solidarity and Wellbeing: Social Mind (Greece). 

The project’s overall objective is to ensure a higher professionalism of the healthcare work force in the illicit drug addiction field at national and European level. 

In particular, the project anticipates to meet the following specific objectives:

  • Contribute to improved competences on illicit drug addiction counselling skills related to screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment and respond to current, emerging and growing needs of the Vocational training sector addressing lack of addiction specialists. 
  • Provide opportunities for continuous professional development in the health industry and create the conditions for increasing the human capital capacity, and employability of health care workers.
  • Empower cooperation between educational institutions and the health care industry, in order to draw critical recommendations on the evolution of the addiction skillset and related job opportunities.

The target group of the project is formed of: health care practitioners in the primary health sector inexperienced in illicit drug addiction and/or physicians who seek to enter the field of addiction to enhance their knowledge and skills required for employment and professional development; addiction professionals (social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists working in illicit drug abuse settings); VET Educators, experts in the SUD field, VET providers, social care professionals, as well as targeted policy makers. 

Expected Results:

– It will increase the quality and relevance of six EU Partner organizations activities in the addiction field, develop and reinforce their networks, increase their capacity to operate jointly at transnational level, boosting internationalization of their activities;

– It will build capacities of six EU organizations in developing cutting-edge online training curricula based on European Qualification Frameworks, and support the development, transfer and/or implementation of innovative practices in the illicit drug abuse field;

– It will improve quality and relevance of Vocational Education in the SUD area in six EU countries and beyond by developing an open and fully transferable course for addiction counselors and by training health care workers on specific skills to meet health care systems immediate needs;

-It will improve the way people using drugs are perceived and enhance service responses in the six EU countries and beyond with a view to tackle this critical health – related social and economic issue of drug abuse.

The approved budget of the project is of 250.000 Euros and its implementation period is 28 months (November 1st 2022- February 28th, 2025).

 

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