This one-day masterclass focuses on the latest treatments and harm reduction strategies, as well as new substances of abuse seen commonly in clinical practice.

The course provides clinicians with an essential update on community management of substance misuse, reviewing national and local trends for drug and alcohol abuse. Assessment and brief intervention techniques will be covered, with an emphasis on good practice, covering the basics of evidence–based alcohol and opiate treatment and harm reduction interventions. We will discuss new interventions in this area as well as the importance of peer support networks.

We will look at approaches to psychological interventions for other drugs such as cannabinoids, cocaine, and MDMA.

People who participate in Chemsex are at risk both from physical toxicity and developing psychiatric complications related to the associated polysubstance use. These will be reviewed and harm reduction and treatment pathways discussed, with illustrative case examples.

People who misuse substances often suffer from multimorbidity both in terms of psychiatric conditions and physical health. We will update you on new approaches to screening for physical health conditions in this patient population and some of the issues around assessment of people with co-occurring mental health disorders, particularly in psychiatric crisis.

Finally we will briefly cover the structure of community drug and alcohol services so that clinicians are aware of which patients can benefit most from these services.