A new Alcohol and Substance Awareness Program to help students with substance abuse issues will be available at City College for the first time this spring.
ASAP is a free, confidential program designed to help City College students who are affected by alcohol and drugs or students concerned with substance abuse.
The program is a collaboration between City College’s Alcohol and Drug Counseling program and the Health and Wellness Center.
“Alcohol and drug related issues always seem to be put on the back burner,” said Gordon Coburn, a local therapist and City College’s ADC coordinator. “If students know that there is a specific program designed to examine alcohol and drug issues, it makes dealing with them more attractive,” he explained.
Currently, students seeking help for alcohol and drug related issues are forced to use UCSB’s existing program because City College doesn’t have one. Coburn hopes that the UCSB program will refer City College students to ASAP starting next semester.
The student-facilitated ASAP program will provide facts and education about alcohol and drug behavior. Students needing additional support either on campus or in the community will be referred to off-campus counseling.
“It’s a program for students seeking information and/or help,” Coburn said.
ASAP will not only be helping students in need of counseling, but also students who are aspiring to be addiction counselors.
“We are creating a traineeship for students who have taken 30 units of alcohol and drug counseling classes,” Coburn said.
Coburn and Allison Bostwick of the Health and Wellness Center will supervise the trainees.
The California Association for Alcohol and Drug Educators recently accredited ASAP.
“That was no meager feat,” Coburn said of the accreditation process. “It was a lot of work.”