Substance abuse has long been an important public health issue in Australia, with profoundly negative implications for individuals, families, communities, and healthcare systems. Whilst no community or population group is spared from the risks of addiction and abuse, some groups are notably more at-risk than others. The Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care has determined several at-risk populations as experiencing disproportionate harms from substance abuse, and make particular reference to these priority populations in policy responses such as the National Drug Strategy 2017-2026. 

Within this report you will examine issues of substance abuse in an at-risk population of your choice. You will review the sociocultural determinants influencing substance use in this population, and report upon the most prevalent forms of dangerous substance abuse. In addition to considering prehospital treatment of emergency presentations, you will assess the collaborative approaches necessary for effective intervention and rehabilitation. 

Your report will have a word count of 1,200 words (+/- 10%). Structure your report around the following key questions, using your own headings and observing the required word counts for each section.

Identify and describe your selected population and their relevant sociocultural determinants of health:

• Introduce your chosen at-risk population, and explain the relevant sociocultural determinants of health influencing substance abuse in this group
• This section should be ~400 words (+/- 10%) in total.

Report upon substance abuse within your selected population: 

• What are the most prevalent forms of substance abuse within this population? 
• For one of the more acutely dangerous substances, explain the chronic and acute physical and psychosocial effects of abuse
• This section should be ~450 words (+/- 10%) in total.

Assess the collaborative approaches available for effective prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of substance abuse: 

• What health services exist for the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of substance abuse in your home area? Identify any shortfalls or issues that may impact patient uptake, treatment, and long-term rehabilitation
• If you suspect that any patient is struggling with substance misuse, what can you do for them? (This is regardless of call nature; for example, you may attend a patient for acute back strain and determine during your time with them that they are struggling with alcohol use disorder.)
• This section should be ~350 words (+/- 10%)  in total.

Cover page and reference list:

• Include a cover page as stipulated within the Moodle page for this task
• Include a complete reference list as stipulated within the Moodle page for this task
• Neither the cover page nor the reference list are included within the overall word count. 

The report comprises just three sections as described above, plus the cover page and a reference list section. There is no need to include an introduction or a conclusion, and subheadings relating to specific questions are not required. 

• This task is worth 25% of your overall mark. You must attain a minimum mark of 50% to pass this task, and you must pass this task to pass the unit. 
• You must review full details of layout, formatting, and word count calculations for this task within Moodle page.

GenAI permissions:

Level 2 AI PLANNING: Al may be used for pre-task activities such as brainstorming, outlining and initial research. This level focuses on the effective use of Al for planning, synthesis, and ideation, but assessments should emphasise the ability to develop and refine these ideas independently. You may use Al for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas.  You must refer to the Assessment Tile in Moodle for guidelines on the acceptable and unacceptable use of generative AI and writing assistance apps (e.g. Grammarly) in this unit. 

Assessment tool:

The assessment tool for this task is a rubric, available from the Moodle page for this task. The rubric assesses your submission on the following main assessment criteria: 

• Presentation, formatting, and completion
• Content depth, detail, and critical insight
• Use of peer-reviewed and other relevant and appropriate literature sources
• Writing clarity, organisation, and academic style.

Instructions provided within the Moodle page for this task include video guidance, writing support documents, and reference material.

It is your turn to contribute to the regular continuing professional development (CPD) sessions held for paramedics at your station. These heavily emphasise evidence-based practice to manage uncertainty and support professional judgement during prehospital cases, and your session covers toxicology and toxinology.

You are producing pre-readings that explore two clinical cases involving a) a toxicological presentation, and b) a toxinological presentation. You can choose whichever toxicological and toxinological presentations are most relevant to you and interest you the most! Your pre-readings will be discussed in the session.

When choosing your two topics, remember the difference between toxicology (effects of chemicals, drugs, and poisons, including CBR events) and toxinology (effects of toxins and venoms produced by living organisms). Examples are provided for you within the Moodle page and will be explored during term content and tutorial sessions.

In exploring these presentations, you will summarise clinical features and treatment rationales, and then focus on clinical decision-making at key inflection points. Clinical inflection points are junctures in case management that often present the most difficult case management decisions, and therefore require careful clinical judgement.

There are three main clinical inflection points that you can choose from for each case type:

1. Diagnostic ambiguity and diagnostic reasoning
2. The just-missed threshold of clinical escalation
3. Competing clinical priorities.

For both presentations you will complete all the following components: introduction, pathophysiology & interventions, and clinical inflection points. These are outlined below and all aspects are detailed further within Moodle. The total word count will be 1,800 words (+/- 10%), so ~900 words for each case type.

Introduction: 

• Introduce your chosen presentation and give a first-person reflection on why you chose this topic.
  • Your reasons are your own! You may have seen this presentation on placement or had other first-hand experience with the case type, or it might be locally relevant to prehospital care in your area
• Add one contextual factor, for example patterns of exposure in your area, risk and resource mismatch, or an emerging concern. For example:
  • Increasing prevalence of box jellyfish in FNQ waters
  • Emergence of novel illicit drugs
  • Risk of organophosphate poisoning in rural agrarian regions lacking high-level medical centres.
• Notes:
  • This section should be ~100 words
  • Although the introduction is brief, you will need to cite and reference any statements of fact as usual
  • You may use a broad range of sources for this section as it relates to sparking interest, e.g. a news story, from epidemiological or statistical data, or an ambulance service report, etc.

Pathophysiology & evidence-based care: 

• This section aids with pattern recognition of this presentation and understanding treatment rationales with a table and summary of evidence-based care
• You will provide a table that summarises:
  • The systemic effects of this toxic substance upon each organ system
  • The key clinical features arising from these effects
  • How pharmacology and other interventions manage or reverse the clinical features
• An example table showing structure and approach is provided within Moodle.
• Notes:
  • Your table purpose is to provide concise clinically useful information, not exhaustive biochemical detail
  • Focus on linking pathophysiological mechanisms to clinical features, highlighting those particularly relevant to prehospital recognition and treatment
  • This section should be ~350-400 words
  • Citations must be from peer-reviewed papers. Ambulance guidelines are NOT suitable sources for background clinical information, just ready reckoners for clinical practice only
  • Place citations for the table after the table title, per APA style, rather than within the table. 

Clinical inflection points in prehospital management: 

• Select one of the three clinical inflection point options below to analyse for each presentation
• Do not use the same clinical inflection point for both case types; explore two different clinical inflections across the two different cases
• If your research gives you an idea for a different inflection point to the provided options, then that is great! Please discuss this with your Unit Coordinator to refine your idea together and ensure suitability for the task.
• Option A: Diagnostic ambiguity & differential reasoning:
  
  • Identify a relevant differential diagnosis and explain how overlapping clinical features, incomplete history, or confounding factors (e.g. polypharmacy, comorbidities, substance co-ingestion, environmental exposure) contribute to diagnostic uncertainty.
  • Describe how you would manage the patient while the diagnosis remains uncertain.
  • Include how you would prioritise interventions that are appropriate across multiple differentials, and how you would use reassessment and evolving clinical features to refine your working diagnosis over time.
• Option B: The just-missed threshold:
  
  • Consider a situation in which the patient exhibits features of your chosen toxidrome but does not yet meet clear guideline thresholds for escalation or advanced intervention.
  • Describe how you would approach assessment and management in this early or borderline phase, including your monitoring and reassessment priorities.
  • Outline your triggers for escalation, and the risks of both premature escalation and delayed intervention in this scenario.
• Option C: Competing clinical priorities:
  
  • Analyse a prehospital situation in which management of this toxidrome involves competing or mutually constraining clinical priorities.
  • For example, patient intervention versus responder and bystander safety (e.g. managing copious secretions or contamination risk), scene time versus rapid transport, intervention versus monitoring and reassessment…
  • Explain how you would prioritise care in this situation, justify your decision-making, and acknowledge the potential risks or downsides of alternative approaches.
• Notes:
  
  • This secion should be ~350-400 words
  • Your responses should demonstrate reasoned clinical judgement that is grounded in evidence and contextually suitable.
  • Your citations and references should comprise at least two peer-reviewed papers no more than 5-10 years old
  • Do not use ambulance guidelines for this section; the goal here is synthesis of literature to guide practice.

Cover page and reference list:

• Include a cover page as stipulated within the Moodle page for this task
• Include a complete reference list as stipulated within the Moodle page for this task
• Neither the cover page nor the reference list are included within the overall word count
• Full formatting requirements are stipulated within Moodle
• This task is unpacked within an assessment task video in Moodle, and will be explored during an interactive tutorial session. 

• This task is worth 35% of your overall mark. You must attain a minimum mark of 50% to pass this task, and you must pass this task to pass the unit. 
• You must complete both sections of this task, i.e. one presentation about a toxicological case, and one presentation about a toxinological case
• Both presentations require the introduction, pathophysiology & evidence-based practice, and clinical inflection sections
• Present the entirety of each presentation in order, i.e. toxicology case with all sections, then toxinology case with all sections
• One cover page for the entire task, and one reference list for the entire task. 

GenAI permissions:

Level 2 AI PLANNING: Al may be used for pre-task activities such as brainstorming, outlining and initial research. This level focuses on the effective use of Al for planning, synthesis, and ideation, but assessments should emphasise the ability to develop and refine these ideas independently. You may use Al for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas. You must refer to the Assessment Tile in Moodle for guidelines on the acceptable and unacceptable use of generative AI and writing assistance apps (e.g. Grammarly) in this unit. 

Assessment tool:

The assessment tool for this task is a rubric, available from the Moodle page for this task. The rubric assesses your submission on the following main assessment criteria: 

• Presentation, formatting, and completion
• Content depth, detail, and critical insight
• Use of peer-reviewed and other relevant and appropriate literature sources
• Writing clarity, organisation, and academic style.

Instructions provided within the Moodle page for this task include video guidance, writing support documents, and reference material.

The test incorporates a mix of questions requiring brief, medium-length, and long responses to assess your theoretical knowledge of unit content related to Learning Outcomes Two and Three. You have 25 questions for a maximum of 100 marks. 

The test covers relevant content from weeks one through eleven. Where questions require detailed clinical management, this must be in accordance with relevant and current components of the Queensland Ambulance Service Digital Clinical Practice Manual. 

You must have a Javascript-enabled browser to access and complete this test. Please click here for instructions on how to enable Javascript for your browser. 

A walkthrough video presents the nature and type of questions, and instructions on how to best answer questions and work through the overall test. Formative tests with complete worked answers are provided to support self-review of content and familiarity with the online test format and setting. 

This task is worth 40% of your overall mark. You must attain a minimum mark of 50% for this task to pass, and you must pass this task to pass the unit. 

Dates:

• The test becomes available at 0900hrs on Monday, Week Twelve (0900hrs AEST 01 June 2026)
• The test closes at 0900hrs on Friday, Week Thirteen (0900hrs AEST 12 June 2026)
• You must start the test by 0729hrs on Friday 12 June to receive your full time period
• In the absence of an approved extension, there will be no opportunity to complete the task after this date
• For this assessment task no late submissions will be accepted and the test will close and become unavailable after the due date and time
• The 72 hour grace period DOES NOT APPLY to this task.

Test completion:

• You must have a Javascript-enabled browser to access and complete this test
• You have a strict time limit of 90 minutes to complete the test; there is no facility to save progress and return to complete it later
• Once started, do not press BACK on your browser or REFRESH the page at any time; your work will be lost as responses are not saved until the test is submitted
• When the test closes, open attempts are automatically submitted
• You have one attempt for this test
• If you experience a technical issue you must notify the Unit Coordinator immediately
• This is an INDIVIDUAL TASK and must not be collaboratively completed. Test submissions are scrutinised to identify instances of collusion between students, and all suspected instances are reported to the Academic Misconduct Board for investigation.