School Counselors’ Use of SBIRT for Substance Use Screening

Abstract

Substance use among high school age youth is pervasive and troublesome. School counselors serve in ideal roles to intervene and prevent substance-related problems; however, school counselors often feel ill prepared to address this issue. Therefore, we discuss school counselors’ application of the Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) model to screen and intervene as a structured approach to address problematic substance use with high school students. In addition, we present a case study to illustrate how school counselors can use this strategy in their work with high school students who experience substance-related problems. We conclude with implications for research and school counseling practice.

Keywords:

• school counseling
• substance use
• screening and intervention
• SBIRT

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.