Primary Care - Dual Diagnosis, Addiction and Behavior

With the growing complexity and demands of clinical cases, Primary Care interveners across the world have been under great strain in the last few years to keep up to pace. The ever increasing impact of Substance Abuse and Mental Illness has been devastating to many individuals and families in spite of the growing numbers of multi-disciplinary professionals in the field.

The clinical interplay between addiction problems and mental health problems has presented special challenges (e.g. dual diagnosis) on many levels to say the least. In the search for appropriate services and tools to deal with such complex problems it is acknowledged that up-to-date intervention tools, conceptual analytical skills and practical knowledge becomes imperative for primary care professionals. The mission for many front line staff across the world has become to “assemble the best team of helpers to meet the needs of the community and to provide the best service which the community deserves”.

In an effort to reinforce the marriage between clinical knowledge (theory - we need a map of the territory to know where we are going) and practical know-how (experiential approach, trial and error), we are proposing a conference on Dual Diagnosis and Primary Care. The framework will correspond to the specific context of substance abuse and mental health, and many examples and applications will be based on my 30 years work experience.

Proposed is a conference which will have specific relevance and practical application to any mental health professional. Both individual and structured family intervention methods will be presented. The interactional exercise, through role playing, re-enactment of a live family intervention approach will be presented in an experiential way as a teaching tool.

The method of presentation will be highly INTERACTIONAL because of the high importance of giving primary care professionals an opportunity to process the issues and relate them to practical APPLICATIONS, which can be integrated into actual intervention.

The bottom line of this approach will be solution-focused, e.g. service planning that best fits the patient’s needs after a concise and an objective assessment. The conference will give primary care workers ample time to understand and integrate the ‘family problem’ into a focused ‘family’ solution. Active participation is of utmost importance for the integration of principles into action-plans.

1. Long-term Sequelae of ABUSE: physical, emotional and social aspects
2. How Drugs work in the Body and the Mind
3. Dual Diagnosis (Substance abuse + Mental Health Issues); Assessment tools in Primary Care
4. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
5. Treatment & Motivational Interviewing: The Stages of Change Model
6. Structured Family Intervention & Role Play