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During the module, students will develop an understanding of the importance of drug use to public health globally. They will gain an appreciation of current tobacco, alcohol and other drug research, policy and intervention issues, specifically from an evidence-based public health perspective. The module consists of lectures, seminars and facilitated groups with a summative assessment in the form of a 2000-word essay.

The overall module aim is to develop an understanding of the importance of drug use to public health globally, and to gain an appreciation of current tobacco, alcohol and other drug research, policy and intervention issues, specifically from an evidence-based public health perspective.

Intended learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the module, a student should be able to: 

• Describe and compare the burden of harm from different drugs and patterns of use 
• Identify public health objectives in relation to drug use and differentiate these from other influences on public policy formation 
• Assess a wide range of interventions in terms of their contributions to reducing drug-related harm, from individually targeted approaches to international regulatory measures. 
• Evaluate the evidential content of current policy debates on drug use; 5. Analyse issues involved in researching alcohol, tobacco and other drug use in public health and critique the resulting evidence

Session Content

There are 10 lectures, 9 seminars, 3 facilitated group work sessions, plus additional group work sessions as required and a team presentation.

Usual lecture titles include: Introduction to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs; Public health approaches to alcohol, tobacco & other drugs; Why some substances are legal and others are not; Alcohol epidemiology and policy issues; Injecting drug use epidemiology and policy issues; Tobacco epidemiology and policy issues; Preventing drug use and harms; Emerging trends in drug use; The social contexts of drug use practices; Community-led models for improving the health of people who use drugs; Drugs, alcohol and tobacco policy approaches compared. The seminars are related to the lectures which broadly address tobacco, alcohol and injecting drug use together. 

Groupwork addresses tobacco, alcohol or other drug use in depth with students able to select from a choice of one topic in each area, as numbers allow. The form of typical learning outcomes for the group work is as follows: 

• To collate and summarise existing background epidemiological data 
• To identify available policy measures 
• To evaluate the evidence based on their effectiveness 
• To collate and summarise existing data in the topic area 
• To identify the need for further research 
• To develop skills in team working, and presentation, which maximise the participation of all 
• Groupwork leads to a formatively assessed presentation. Recent topics, for indicative purposes only, have been: Parliamentary Committee Inquiry into E-cigarettes; Brief interventions to identify and reduce alcohol problems; Crack cocaine harm reduction: Developing an intervention to reach hidden populations and enhance service engagement.

Mode of delivery

This module is delivered predominantly face-to-face. Where specific teaching methods (lectures, seminars, discussion groups) are noted in this module specification these will be delivered by predominantly face-to-face sessions. There will be a combination of live and interactive activities (synchronous learning) as well as self-directed study (asynchronous learning).

Assessment

Students will write a 2,000-word essay on a public health approach to a policy debate or on a research issue (worth 100% of the module grade). They will be asked to address one title from a number of titles offered. The assessment is designed to allow the students to demonstrate their learning and critical understanding of the topic, as related to the module’s intended learning outcomes. Groupwork is formatively assessed only and does not contribute towards the final module grade.

Credits

• CATS: 15
• ECTS: 7.5

Module specification

For full information regarding this module please see the module specification.