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Substance misuse in the undergraduate curriculum

In 2004 the International Centre for Drug Policy was launched as an independent, non-for-profit centre at St. George’s, University of London. The Centre is involved in formulating policy in fields including research and education. They produced the document Substance Misuse in the Undergraduate Curriculum back in 2007.  A steering group is working towards introducing elements of this report into UK medical schools’ undergraduate curricula.

The harm caused by tobacco and the misuse of alcohol and drugs presents one of our country’s biggest health challenges. Future doctors  have an important role in shaping and delivering the advice and treatment that can be offered to people with substance misuse problems. A core aim of the medical curriculum is to enable doctors to assist in prevention of substance misuse, and management of those dependent upon substances. The second core aim is to enable schools to help future and trainee doctors to be aware of the risk of substance misuse to their own health and to their professional practice and conduct. This is important not only for supporting doctors themselves and promoting their own good health, but also for promoting the proper care and protection of the public. The third aim focuses on stigma and discrimination. This is important in promoting fair and equitable access to advice and care for those with substance-related health problems.

These toolkits may be found here:

Substance misuse is important as it doesn’t just cause harm to individual people, it impacts on society in ways such as contributing towards a large proportion of crime. Prevention and treatment problems also cost significant sums of money. In the 2009/10 academic year, this scheme will be rolled out first of all at the medical schools Barts and the London, Birmingham, Bristol, East Anglia, Hull York, Manchester and Newcastle. Students shouldn’t see too much change when this all starts. Most universities already have existing curricular content on substance misuse, it will be a case of the school tweaking their existing resources to fit in with the SMUC guidelines.
The most interesting section is the facts about doctors themselves misusing substances. At the end of 2001, out of 201 doctors under suspension from the General Medical Council, 199 had problems with drugs, alcohol or mental ill health. Medical students should be able to recognise that doctors’ ill health can potentially impact on patient care, and take responsibility for this. A good way of doing this is education. Forewarned is forearmed.

- Dom

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 10:41 am and is filed under Medical Students. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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