A review of research on residential programs for people with severe mental illness and co‐occurring substance use disorders

Abstract

Substance use disorder is the most common and clinically significant co-morbidity among clients with severe mental illnesses, associated with poor treatment response, homelessness and other adverse outcomes. Residential programs for clients with dual disorders integrate mental health treatment, substance abuse interventions, housing and other supports. Ten controlled studies suggest that greater levels of integration of substance abuse and mental health services are more effective than less integration. Because the research is limited by methodological problems, further research is needed to establish the effectiveness of residential programs, to characterize important program elements, to establish methods to improve engagement into and retention in residential programs and to clarify which clients benefit from this type of service.

Screening for mental disorder comorbidity in Australian alcohol and other drug residential treatment settings

“…Figures on population-wide comorbidity from the first Australian version of this study, the National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing were consistent with the rest of the world and are reported in Table 7 below with the NCS figures for comparison (Andrews, Slade, & Issakidis, 2002;Burns, Teesson, & Lynskey, 2001;Teesson & Proudfoot, 2003). (Slade et al, 2009).…”

Growth and Empowerment for Indigenous Australians in Substance Abuse Treatment

“…living within a residential treatment program). Residential treatment settings entail limited contact with everyday stressors, and provide a relatively safe and structured environment, scheduled activities to promote participation, as well as educational activities and skills enhancement (Brunette et al 2001(Brunette et al , 2004. Many of the items on the Inner Peace subscale may have been responded to positively by participants due to the physical and practical confines of their environment.…”

Service Based Internship Training to Prepare Workers to Support the Recovery of People with Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders

“…Substance misuse disorders are the most common co-morbidity for people with a mental illness (Brunette, Mueser, and Drake, 2004) and are increasing in prevalence to the point where comorbidity is being considered the norm rather than the exception (Davidson & White, 2007).…”

“…Traditionally COD have been treated in parallel or sequentially, however this often results in poor treatment outcomes (Gil-Rivas & Grella, 2005). More recently, greater support has been found for an integrated approach to treatment, including higher completion rates and lower rates of relapse (Primm et al, 2000;Brunette et al, 2004). Integrated treatment is now seen as the more effective form of treatment for COD (Mueser, Noordsy, Drake, & Fox, 2003).…”