December 15, 2009
Screening and referral program aims at substance abuse
By Marisela Velazquez, SBIRT Program Manager
Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment, or SBIRT, is a universal program practiced in medical settings to improve public health by identifying individuals who may be at risk for becoming substance dependent.
The program also provides methods in reducing substance abuse. Nationwide reports from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as well as universal data from the World Health Organization show evidence that drinking behaviors change when a medical staff provides awareness and education on alcohol consumption.
The purpose of SBIRT is not about enforcing abstinence via force or judgment but rather about proactively engaging in harm reduction practices using motivational interviewing techniques.
The first technique is screening for alcohol consumption, which is a quick and easy way to identify drinking patterns, and provide useful information to patients. Patients identified as needing more extensive help can receive brief intervention and/or possible referral to treatment, depending on their level of alcohol consumption.
YKHC will launch its own tailored SBIRT program in early Spring 2010, starting in the Emergency Department (ED) then in the upcoming Sobering Center Facility across from the post office in Hoffman Subdivision.
Implementing SBIRT can entail rigorous organizational, financial, clinical, ethical, and legal challenges that have to be met in order to assure that the program's services will fulfill the needs of patients. In order to achieve this, it is essential that officials and various agencies become involved in the implementation of SBIRT in Bethel. So far, YKHC's SBIRT team has held consistent biweekly and monthly meetings with the Bethel Police Dept., BCS Foundation, Alaska Mental Health Trust, Bethel's mayor, and Treatment and Recovery for state Division of Behavioral Health.
YKHC's SBIRT Program Manager and ED medical personnel are producing quarterly reports and gathering data on the patients taken into protective custody who arrive at the ED. This will be essential information and an approximate estimation of the volume of patients expected to participate in the SBIRT program.
The SBIRT team has also recently agreed upon the screening instrument, AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test), which will be used in the ED. Further, Sleep-Off Technicians from the ED will be the first cohort to participate in staff engagement training early next year.
For timeline and in-depth report details of the SBIRT Program please contact Merisela Velazquez, SBIRT Program Manager, at 543-6713.
Some of the benefits of the SBIRT Program:
- Reduce overload of substance abuse patients in the ER.
- Decline in medical costs.
- Increase in outpatient medical treatment.
- Patients are more likely to enter treatment having had a brief intervention, than those who are not screened.
