The proposed project will build capacity to implement, evaluate, and sustain access to enhanced, timely, and culturally responsive Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) services for substance use and comorbid psychiatric conditions, including availability of Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), for undergraduate and graduate college student patients seeking primary care and mental health services within a comprehensive university-based behavioral health care system which has earned national recognition for SBIRT innovation over the past 15 years. Project goals are to: 1) increase the number of college students with a SUD receiving timely and responsive brief interventions and specialty treatment, including MAT when indicated; 2) increase the number of students, including those from minoritized populations, who are receiving SBIRT services within the behavioral health care setting; 3) reduce consumption of alcohol and other substances and related negative consequences among those receiving SBIRT services; and 4) develop and implement a tobacco cessation program. We will implement a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model that integrates health coaches, an addiction psychiatrist, and a psychologist specializing in Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for young adult substance use.
Project efforts will reach approximately 15,000 patients (3,000 annually) throughout the life of the grant. Enhancing capacity will assist in saving many young lives, approximately 40% of whom live in poverty. Additionally, this project will also help us identify, understand, and disseminate what works to effectively implement SBIRT within university-based health care delivery settings serving more than 21 million college students across the United States.
This project has been developed through a strategic planning process involving a Project Institutionalization Council of key campus and community stakeholders in response to a critical service need as documented by annual assessment data and records of critical incidents, including three completed suicides involving substance use and three substance overdose-related deaths during the past five years. Beyond backgrounds of poverty and marginalization, data also suggest that an increasing number of our students are arriving with established SUDs requiring comprehensive, accessible, and timely screening and follow-up treatment.
Key staff members have been collaborating as a team for the past 15 years and have built capacity for SBIRT with the support of over $9 million in grants from SAMHSA, NIAAA, NIDA, and the U.S. Department of Education. Highlights of the health system's national-level accomplishments include the development of the STEPS Program, an evidence-based SBIRT protocol listed in SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices, as well as refereed publications and books stemming from its work on SBIRT for young adults. These accomplishments in SBIRT to date have earned national recognition through awards in behavioral health innovation and have informed the President's National Drug Control Strategy.
