$943,000 SAMHSA Grant Offers Evidence-Based Approach to Fight Substance Abuse

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2016
Contact
Rebecca Grossfield
Boston University School of Social Work
Phone: 617-358-5149
Email: rebdg@bu.edu

Social Work, Mental Health Counselor, and Psychiatry Graduate Students at Boston University Begin Training

(Boston, MA) Boston University School of Social Work received a $943,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to provide key evidence-based screening and intervention training over the next three years. Associate dean for research and professor, Lena Lundgren, is the grant’s principal investigator. She is collaborating on the project with
co-PI Stephen Brady, associate professor of psychiatry and graduate medical sciences at Boston University School of Medicine.

The SBIRT grant at Boston University will provide training to nearly 600 graduate-level social work, mental health counselor, and psychiatry students, and their field supervisors. Dr. Ivy Krull (’05, ’13, SPH ’08) is the project director for the effort, Deborah Chassler (’90), associate director for the Center for Addictions Research and Services at BU School of Social Work, is overseeing all day-to-day research and evaluation activities, and BUSSW doctoral student Taylor Hall works on recruitment and data analyses.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2013 an estimated 22.7 million Americans needed treatment for an alcohol or drug problem, but only about 2.5 million people actually received care. Social workers are often among the first health professionals to connect with individuals who may benefit from early intervention to prevent substance use disorders. However, until recently, many social workers did not have access to training in the evidence-based approach referred to SBIRT: Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment. This public health method assists health professionals by providing them with information for broad population screening and appropriate follow-up.

“There is consistent evidence that health professionals are not trained in empirically supported screening, assessment, and treatment methods for substance use disorders,” Lundgren said. Lundgren also noted that the passing of the Affordable Care Act is likely to result in more employment of social workers in primary care settings. They will all need training in evidence based screening and referral techniques.

Developing Online and In-Person Training Modules at Boston University 

Mena daSilva-Clark, assistant dean for off-campus and online programs, Maryann Amodeo, professor, chair of the clinical practice department, and co-director for the Center for Addictions Research and Services, and  Eric Devine, assistant professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, have been instrumental in developing and launching the BU-SBIRT online course.   

The SBIRT curriculum was originally developed by SAMHSA and was  adapted by the BU-SBIRT team for training of social workers and non-physicians. The online BU-SBIRT course is interactive, includes videos, animations, question and answers, and assessments which help participants to understand and practice the intervention.  Professor Amodeo said the core SBIRT curriculum is “very physician oriented.” Her main task has been to adapt the training for non-physicians such as social workers and to focus on what is different about social work settings in order to better integrate their role into the training module.  

Adapting SBIRT for Social Work 

The practice of SBIRT by social workers will be different depending on whether or not practitioners are in a social work setting or primary care setting.  

“For those in a social work setting,” Amodeo said, “it’s going to require using standardized questionnaires during the intake process typically completed by a social worker. During the process of conducting a psychosocial evaluation, we [social workers] would bring up questions in a conversational way and explain to clients that we’re really asking these questions because they impact health, mental health, medication, role modeling, and that alcohol and drugs can occasionally be overly used to cope with a range of problems.” 

While social workers will need to continue refining and modifying the SBIRT model over time, these are exciting first steps.  

Amodeo noted, “Until recently there has not been a systematic way to screen and assess patients. There are dozens of instruments and dozens of ways, a whole range of methods—but SBIRT offers us a single, evidence-based method for doing this. And because it’s brief, it’s not a burden on the social worker or the client.”  

Next steps 

In the implementation of SBIRT, Lundgren will work with Luz Lopez, associate professor at BUSSW, to adapt SBIRT for working with Latino clients.   

SBIRT is available in numerous languages and is used in many countries. It is one of the evidence based approaches recommended by the World Health Organization. 

Lundgren recommends that, as with other methods, practitioners be careful to not exaggerate the value of SBIRT and assume that it can be used with all populations or in addiction treatment settings. Some studies suggest that SBIRT is an approach best used in non-treatment settings, that it may be more effective in screening for alcohol and less so in the screening for illicit drug use.  

SBIRT online training began in January for social work students in BUSSW’s Charles River, Online, and Off-Campus Programs. Training for the BU affiliated field instructors of social work and mental health counseling and behavioral medicine (MHCBM) students will begin soon.

In-person SBIRT training of MHCBM and BUMC psychiatry residents has already started.

The scaffolding for this training, the SBIRT core curriculum, was compiled and disseminated by SAMHSA to all its grantees nationally.

For more information about BU-SBIRT, click here.