Improving Care for Co-occurring Psychological Health and Substance Use Disorders

📖 The Scoop

"In the past decade, the number of individuals treated by the MHS for psychological health conditions has grown significantly. Patients with co-occurring psychological health and substance abuse conditions have unique treatment needs, and evidence suggests that integrated treatment for these conditions may be more effective than treating each separately. The Navy's Bureau of Medicine contracted with Hazelden to provide training for clinicians to deliver an evidence-based intervention for treating patients with co-occurring disorders. The Hazelden training, the Co-Occurring Disorders Clinician Training Program (CODP), began in 2008. RAND evaluated the implementation of the training among Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program (SARP) personnel to understand the CODP approach and goals, and to describe the training program and materials and trainee perceptions, identify which program elements were implemented and sustained, identify facilitators and barriers to implementation, and describe programs' capabilities to provide integrated care. This report presents the results and makes recommendations for improving training of SARP personnel. RAND researchers formulated the following recommendations: Develop a training plan, obtain leadership support, plan for staff turnover, provide consultation after training, and evaluate training efforts; ensure that clinician training focuses on materials and skills most relevant to their practice; consider requiring that all service members receiving care from a SARP be screened for substance use and psychological health problems; identify and certify select sites as providing enhanced co-occurring disorders services; and implement measures to assess the quality of care at SARPs."--Back cover.

Genre: Medical / Education & Training (fancy, right?)