Implementing Residential Integrated Treatment for Co-occurring Disorders

Objective: Much is now known about effective treatment for co-occurring substance abuse and psychiatric difficulties and many evidence-based practice recommendations have been disseminated. Implementation of these recommended interventions in daily clinical practice has been more of a struggle. This article describes successful implementation of integrated treatment for co-occurring disorders in a small residential program. Methods: A traditional 28-day addiction service was transformed into a 3-month integrated treatment program and 155 individuals with co-occurring disorders agreed to participate in its evaluation. The transformation entailed a completely new manualized service, training in a number of clinical interventions for all program clinicians, ongoing clinical supervision, and formal measurement of clients’ backgrounds, substance abuse, quality of life, mental health symptoms, self-esteem, and satisfaction with the program. We also obtained collateral informants’ reports on participants’ symptoms, substance use, and quality of life. Fidelity to the treatment model was continuously assessed, as were participants’ knowledge and skill acquisition. In addition, impact of the implementation on the program clinicians’ morale and attitudes toward evidence-based practices was assessed, as was staff turnover and per diem costs. Results: Despite very problematic clinical and sociodemographic histories, the 86 participants who completed the program showed clinically significant mental health symptom improvement, acquisition of knowledge and skill, and high self-esteem and satisfaction with the program. Program fidelity, clinician morale, commitment to the program, and attitudes toward evidence-based practice were uniformly high. These successes were achieved while maintaining the lowest per–inpatient day cost of all hospital inpatient units. Conclusions: The findings support the contention that evidence-based integrated treatment can be implemented with fidelity in regular clinical practice to the benefit of participants, staff, and the hospital. Our experience was that having a scientist-practitioner working as a staff member on the program to lead the implementation was a key element. Future reports will focus on longer-term follow-up of substance use and quality of life outcomes.