Evidence Based Approaches to Counselling
Substance Users

Evaluation Questionnaire

EBA Accredited Drug Worker Training Course

1)         Would you recommend attending the training to other people?

Yes  100%           No 0%

2)         What sort of impact has attending the course had on your work?

Very positive 37.5%      Positive 50%   Hard to say 12.5%    None 0%   Negative 0%  Very negative 0%

On reflection, has attending the course led you to: 

Ø       Develop (evidence based practice) knowledge, understanding and skills to enable you to work therapeutically with substance users.

Yes, but I deliberately chose most of the class assignments in less familiar areas to me, so that the research I put in to produce the work was a deeper learning process.  This was a good deal more time consuming than I expected, but rewarding.

Ø       Develop awareness of your own values and beliefs and their influence on the helping relationship.

Really questioned how I work and my beliefs.  Why I do this work and what I can positively contribute.

Ø       Develop understanding of behavioural specific interventions for supporting substance misusers through a process of change.

This was very useful.  It has made me very reflective of my interactions and has produced both change in my approach and changes in the response of the clients.

This is really useful to understand and use suitable applications to different stages.

Ø       Increase your confidence and competence in deploying evidence based approaches to working with substance misusers.

Can feel a bit clunky at times when I am trying something out, but have more confidence to try alternatives if current approach is not working – more creative in general.

3)         After the course have you been able to do any of the following?

Improve the work that you do with service users                87.5%

Respond more confidently to situations and incidents       75%

Make new contacts with other organisations or people      62.5%

Try new ways of working on drugs issues                         62.5%

Use what you learnt to plan or carry out specific pieces of work      87.5%

4)         Any other comments?

I found the course extremely stimulating, I had previously felt stale and bored in my work and this provided a creative shift to re engage me – larger toolbox of skills.

I am left feeling I have achieved a good grounding in a number of approaches, but in a stand-alone post I sometimes feel that I lack feedback from others.  The group learning process of the course was very valuable and I miss the pool of experience it provided then, several months on. 

Particularly self-efficacy and motivational interviewing were valuable in working with young people, in effecting change.

Might help in future for the purposes of employers, an explanation was included with certificate with details of competency in respect of relevant level achieved.

Really good course.

So much was learnt not enough time for practice.

Excellent course, valuable learning for drugs workers however much experience they have.

Very good course which has enabled me to work on a more professional level.

Very informative

Feedback from individual days on the programme:

Evaluation Form – Drugs and Society

Aim:   To understand drug use in it’s cultural, social and legal context.

What was useful?

Informative, structured map of drug use and the wider, global implications.

I found it really interesting learning about this, and it really opened up my mind and gave me some food for thought.

Defining situations/conditions by pattern/structure enabling one to get insights not previously considered.

All very useful and informative, delivered in a way that was easy to listen to.

Very enjoyable and relaxed.

All given information.

All aspects of the course.

All course work and delivery of training.

The global context of cocaine was very eye opening.

Historical context of different drugs and alcohol.

Putting substance use into context.

Yes, very informative.

All as I am new to the field.

Very interesting.

Overdose case studies, cards on description, risk and effect.

Workbook to be used as evidence – limits extra work/writing up.

History, political situation.

Drug chain.

All of it.

Everything.

Cycle of change.

The information given.

The pace of the day.

The extra reading handouts for use with the rest of the course.

Do you have any other comments about the training course?

Look forward to next session.

It was excellent.

I found this course very enjoyable, refreshing – makes a lot of sense. Able to relate it directly to both professional life and life in general.

Do it over a shorter period.  More compact instead of spread out over months.

It was delivered in a way that kept my interest all day long – there was no watching the clock waiting for the next break to escape, which I find with a lot of other training I have attended.

Very informative.

Would be good to have more days than those allocated.

Excellent.  Thank you.

Excellent, informative, sometimes confusing intellectually, and fun.

Excellent day reassured about the rest of the course.

Evaluation Form – Models of Change

Aim: To Understand the relationship between stated beliefs and performance.

What was useful?

Employing the cycle of change into tiered services.

Spectrum of use.

All of it.

Spectrum of use identifying reasons for use outside of individual.

All, I now feel that I understand the models and cycle of change.

All of it.

Demythologising.

Four models of change, cycles of change, human development and how drugs changes this e.g. 16yr old in a 36yr old body.

How tiers of treatment relates to models of change.

Everything.

Four models of change, spectrum of use.  Cycle of change.

Learning about and understanding cycle of change – where we all connect.

Everything.

All.

Cycle of change.

Logical/structural analysis of dependency.

I feel I have a really good understanding of this now.

Learning about the impact environment has on addiction.

Lots of info but time went quickly.  More advanced than I assumed NVQ level 3 to be.

Marvellous, thanks.

More training please.

Has made me think about the service we offer.

What can I say other than fantastic.

As before able to relate to topics to both professional life and life in general.

Great course, looking forward to next session.

It was a really enjoyable day and I learnt a great deal. The trainer was very interesting and engaging.

Evaluation Form – Therapeutic Alliance

Aim:  To understand core processes of behavioral change.

What was useful?

Yes.

Everything.

All the course work, particularly ORS and SRS.

Every aspect, especially the group work.

Understanding the therapeutic alliance.

Tools to assess sessions.

Gaining understanding.

ORS and SRS tools.

ORS and SRS.

Timing the more difficult subject matter for morning sessions, when we are more alert.

All info given and explanations.

Doing the group exercises and discussions.  Also the exercises on interviewing without giving an opinion and using open questions.

ORS and SRS.

All of it.

Do you have any other comments about the training course?

Good course!

Very extensive.

Great course, learning so much!

Thanks.

I am having difficulties with team management at the moment, it would be good to have more advice, opportunities to think through how staff can receive training/supervision to improve their abilities.  I’d like to have a staff member really reflect on their position and suitability for the service, based on lack of key skills like empathy, which cannot be taught!!