Managing services that manage people with a coexisting mental health and substance use disorder

✍ Scribed by Mark Welch; Julie Mooney

• Book ID: 104469762
• Publisher: Informa plc
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 86 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1039-8562
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1440-1665.2001.00362.x

✦ Synopsis

Objective: The Mental Health and Alcohol and Drug Services (MHADS) initiated the present study as a cross-service investigation into current practice and future developments in the provision of services to clients with dual disorders.

Method: A two-part study was conducted over a six-month period to determine: 1) The fidelity to the principles of care outlined in The Service Delivery Guidelines for The Management of People with a Coexisting Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder (2000) (The Service Delivery Guidelines), and 2) The barriers to following the guidelines.

Results: A number of barriers to the full implementation of the guidelines were uncovered, principally in the areas of system issues, training and education, clinical issues, and policies and procedures.

Conclusions: Comorbidity of mental health and substance use disorders is receiving more attention in health services as awareness of the prevalence of these problems increases and the poor outcomes from current service delivery models are more widely acknowledged. However, it is apparent that there is almost as much ‘comorbidity’ in the services that provide the care as in the population itself.