Evaluating Substance Abuse in Persons with Severe Mental Illness

A large proportion of persons with severe psychiatric disorders are affected by substance abuse, and clinical research points to the need to treat psychiatric and substance use disorders in an integrated fashion. Accordingly, all mental health clinicians who work with these individuals must develop competence in the detection and treatment of substance use disorders. Simply referring clients with a substance use disorder to other clinicians or other treatment facilities never worked very well in the first place, and is no longer a credible approach. Moreover, as mental health clinicians develop expertise in the assessment and management of substance use disorders, their ability to monitor substance abuse accurately assumes even greater importance, for several reasons.