Country-wide distance training for delivery of screening and brief intervention for problematic substance use: A pilot evaluation of participant experiences and patient outcomes

ABSTRACT

Background: In this study, the authors evaluated if the 120-hour distance learning (DL) course SUPERA (an acronym in Portuguese meaning “System for detection of excessive use or dependence on psychoactive substances: brief Intervention, social reinsertion and follow-up”) was an effective way to train health professionals and social workers to apply screening and brief intervention (SBI) for patients with substance use disorders. Methods: In the first phase, 2420 health professionals or social workers, who had completed the course, answered an online survey about their use of the SBI. In the second phase, 25 of those professionals applied the ASSIST (Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test) followed by a brief intervention (BI) to patients with substance use disorders. Three months after the SBI delivery, independent researchers followed up 79 patients who had received SBI, reapplying the ASSIST and a questionnaire to evaluate the patients'/clients' satisfaction with the intervention they received. Results: In the first phase, it was found that most health professionals and social workers who completed the course applied the SBI in their work and felt very motivated to do it. In the second phase of the study, at a 3-month follow-up, most patients had significantly reduced their ASSIST scores in respect of alcohol and cocaine/crack in relation to their baseline levels. Those patients classified by their ASSIST score as “suggestive of dependence” presented a significant reduction in their scores regarding alcohol, tobacco, and cocaine/crack, whereas those classified as “at risk” presented a reduction in respect of alcohol problems only. Patients associated changes in their substance use with the SBI received. Conclusions: A reduction in substance use–related problems was associated with the SBI applied by the health professionals or social workers trained by the DL course SUPERA. Two significant limitations of this study were the small number of participants (professionals and patients in the follow-up) and the absence of a control group in the second phase of the study.

KEYWORDS:

• Brief intervention
• health professional
• screening
• social worker

Author contributions

Both authors contributed to the study design and writing of the protocol. A. P. L. Carneiro managed the literature searches and summaries of previous related work, acquisition of data, statistical analysis, and interpretation of results. M. L. O. Souza-Formigoni contributed the study design and interpretation of results and provided critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content. A. P. L. Carneiro wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and both authors contributed to and have approved the final version.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by SENAD (Secretaria Nacional de Políticas sobre Drogas; grant number 06/2012); FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo; grant number 2009/12973-8), CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico; grant number 140258/2012-4), CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior), and AFIP (Associação Fundo de Incentivo à Pesquisa). The funding organizations had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.