Another Way of Talking About Substance Abuse: Substance Abuse Screening and Brief Intervention in a Mental Health Clinic

Abstract

This article provides experiential evidence on the transportability of the Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) screening tool and brief intervention in a mental health clinic. There is very little published information on implementing screening and brief intervention (SBI) in a mental health setting. Moreover, few SBI projects have reported on clinicians' experiences using the ASSIST. The article documents a successful attempt at implementing the ASSIST and discusses the benefits and challenges of doing SBI in a mental health setting.

KEYWORDS:

• Substance abuse
• screening
• diffusion of innovations

Notes

This study was funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (Grant TI 17244). The authors graciously thank the clinicians at UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) for their willingness to try the ASSIST and provide constructive feedback for the evaluation. The authors also wish to thank the administrative staff at CAPS for their ongoing support of the project and Kris Langabeer for her valuable editing assistance.