Historically, addiction has been an area in which Canadian social workers have received limited formal education. This reality led to the development of 18 core technical competencies through the auspices of the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse in 2006. A survey of Canadian schools and faculties of social work found that social work students might obtain a grounding in many of these competencies, however, there was no certainty of this. An option now for those interested in becoming more proficient in this field of addiction is a specialized distance education program developed by McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Along with meeting the majority of the core competencies, there are several other attributes that make this program unique. It offers 27 distinct addiction-specific course options at both an introductory and an advanced level; has continuous enrollment allowing students to begin a course at the beginning of any month; has no minimum course load requirement; and meets the academic requirements for optional certification through the Canadian Addiction Counselors Certification Federation. In a nation like Canada, with a small population spread across a large geographic area, the Addiction Studies Program may serve as a template for offering specialized distance education to enhance professional competencies and thus better prepare social workers to serve community needs. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
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