CADER Partners with Rush E4 Center for Excellence to Offer Substance Use and Aging Course to Faith Leaders  

With older adults attending religious services more frequently than members of other age groups, faith leaders can play a key role in identifying and addressing concerns in older adults. To increase faith leaders’ preparedness to respond to substance use concerns in older adults, the Center for Aging and Disability Research and Education (CADER) at Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW) created an online course, Substance Use and Aging for Faith Leaders. This self-paced, online course trains faith leaders to understand substance use in the aging population, identify substance use concerns, and provide appropriate resources, resulting in better outcomes.

CADER partnered with the Rush E4 Center for Excellence to pilot the course with 32 Chicago-based faith leaders. Learners showed statistically significant increases in all course competencies, indicating gains in knowledge and skills. 

“The course was easy to understand,” a course participant said. “The content was presented in different ways and was reinforced with videos and quizzes.” 

After completing the program, learners reported improvements in their ability to make referrals for older adults with substance use concerns and to respond better through effective communication and collaboration.  

“This course taught me the right words to use and how to listen. It makes a big difference,” another learner shared.  

The Substance Use for Faith Leaders course is now available on the Learning Catalog.