Integrated Substance Abuse and Mental Health

 

SBIRT: Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral and Treatment for Substance Abuse within a General Clinical Setting

Under the guidance of Principal Investigator Jennifer Smith, MD, Stroger Hospital of Cook County, SBIRT is a cooperative agreement with the state of Illinois to expand the state’s continuum of care for mental illness and alcohol and drug related problems to include screening, brief intervention, referral and brief treatment (SBIRT) in general medical settings. Through training and onsite modeling, SBIRT trains generalist medical care providers to provide clinically appropriate interventions for nondependent substance users. This program emphasizes newly energized linkages among traditional substance use providers, mental health providers and generalist medical providers performing SBIRT and other community based specialist agencies. SBIRT is guided by a steering committee providing strategic policy and operational advice on the SBIRT project to the Governor, the Hon Rod Blagojevich, to advance systems and policy changes that support the integration of SBIRT into the existing systems of specialist substance abuse treatment, mental health services and general medical care.

The cooperating agencies include: Office of the Governor, the Department of Human Services, the Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, the Cook County Bureau of Health Services, the Hektoen Institute, the Great Lakes Addictions Technology Transfer Center, TASC, Inc and a large number of community based treatment providers. The recipient community being targeted are selected inpatient and ambulatory medical care settings within the Cook County Bureau of Health Services (CCBHS), including Stroger Hospital of Cook County, Provident and Oak Forest Hospitals and six health centers in the Austin, Logan Square, Englewood, Near South, Woodlawn and Cottage Grove communities of Cook County.