Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #104337

Salvatore Libretto, PhD¹, Lauren Hess, BA¹, Nikeea Linder, PhD¹, and Matthew Hile, PhD². (1) Danya International, Inc., 8737 Colesville Road, Suite 1200, Silver Spring, MD 20910, 301-565-2142, slibretto@danya.com, (2) School of Medicine - Mental Health System Research Unit, Missouri Institute of Mental Health, University of Missouri-Columbia, 5400 Arsenal Street, St. Louis, MO 63139

Research points to high rates of co-occurring mental health disorders among individuals presenting for substance abuse treatment. The co-occurrence of mental health and substance use disorders presents particular challenges for screening and assessment. In March 2000, SAMHSA identified “improving the quality of services available to people with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health problems” as a priority. The early identification of these co-occurring problems is crucial for treatment success yet many treatment programs are unable to identify reliable and valid measures for this purpose. Based on a literature review and a needs assessment of treatment professionals, a screening system was developed. This system includes an innovative, user-friendly computer-based screening system designed to rapidly identify potential mental health disorders that commonly coexist with substance-related disorders. The system was then modified according to expert panel input, resulting in a set of screening questions for 11 commonly co-occurring psychiatric disorders. A pilot test was conducted of the computer interface to elicit information on usability and implementation. Four substance abuse treatment professionals tested both the client and staff interfaces for the package. Participants were given a list of nine required tasks and surveys for each of the tasks. They completed each task and the accompanying questionnaire one at a time. At the end of the testing, the research team felt confident that the system was quite usable by clients and by briefly trained substance abuse treatment providers.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• List the mental health disorders that most commonly co-occur with substance abuse.
• Recognize the need to screen substance abuse treamtent clients for co-occurring mental health disorders.
• Describe the process involved in developing a co-occuring disorders screening instrument.

Keywords: Screening Instruments, Co-morbid

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.