Social Intervention and Harm Reduction

Code:

P813

Acronym:

ISRR

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Psychology

Instance: 2013/2014 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Psychology
Course/CS Responsible:	Integrated Master Psychology

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIPSI	32	Official Curricular Structure	4	-	6	54	162
		Official Curricular Structure 2012	4	-	6	54	162

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

1. To know and understand what harm reduction is and its importance. 2. To distinguish social intervention and harm reduction from similar forms of intervention (communitary intervention, health education...). 3. To know the different areas, methods and strategies used in drug use and sex work' s harm reduction. 4. Based on good practices examples, identify, characterise and critically discuss other projects and programs. 5. To apply acquired knoledge to concrete situations and contexts

Learning outcomes and competences

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

- Know and understand the meaning of harm reduction and its importance

- Know the different areas, methods and strategies associated with drug use and sex work' s harm reduction

- Identify, characterize and critically discuss different harm reduction programs and intervention projects

Working method

Presencial

Program

1. 
1.1 Critical discussion of the concept of "risk": psychological risk, social risk, risks management, risk society,... 
1.2. The context of social intervention and harm reduction: marginality and exclusion at the pos-industrial city; Drug phenomenum social evolution and the emergence of harm reduction. 
2. Harm reduction notions, initial programs critics and principles. Harm reduction in the global strategy of drug intervention. 
3. Harm reduction in Portugal 
4. Main characteristics and programs: 
4.1. Characteristics: pragmatism, proximity, network,... 
4.2. Programs: drug use/drugdependence (syringe exchange, low threshold methadone programs, harm reduction in the sintetic drugs scene, consumption rooms, peer work,...); sex work (out reach and drop in center interventions; the main areas: HIV/AIDS ans STI, health promotion, violence and exploitation, human and civil rights, empowerment; methods: peer education, counselling and support, use of internet, informative materials,...; intervention with sex workers, clients and managers); ohter progras (alcohol consumption, ...)

Mandatory literature

Grup IGIA; Contextos, sujetos y drogas: un manual sobre drogodependencias, Fundación de Ayuda contra la Drogadicción, 2000
O'Hare, P., Newcombe, R., Matthews, A., Buning, E. & Drucker, E.; La reducción de los daños relacionados con las drogas, Grup IGIA, 1995
Marlatt G. Alan co-aut.; Harm reducation. ISBN: ISBN 1-57230-397-2

Teaching methods and learning activities

Expositive, group discussions, study visits to social intervention and harm reduction projects.

keywords

Social sciences > Psychological sciences > Psychology
Social sciences > Sociology > Urban sociology

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Exame	50,00
Participação presencial	0,00
Trabalho escrito	50,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Elaboração de projeto
Estudo autónomo
Frequência das aulas
Trabalho de campo
Total:	0,00

Eligibility for exams

Presence in the class is one of the components for evaluation since participating in discussions is one of the evaluated items. To get approval, 10 points minimum at the sum of different evaluation components is necessary. Evaluation will be based on the students performance in a final writen exam and in a work group that will consist in the presentation of a critical analysis of an intervention harm reduction project. Both components count 50% for the final classification.
The result will be the sum of the classifications obtained in the different evaluation components: 
- participation in classes and performance in the workgroup; 
- final written exam 

Students must get the minimum result of 9,5 in a scale of 20.

Calculation formula of final grade

The final classification (between 0 and 20) is obtained through the following calculation: - It is necessary that the student gets at least 8 in each of those evaluation components and the final classification must be of at least 10. Missing one of those evaluation components will make it impossible to get approval.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

The students with specific statutes will be evaluated in the same way.

Classification improvement

The attemp to improve the final result will be possible by repeating the final exam in the subsequent season.