Have you heard about the term SBIRT? Or do you have any patients who are experiencing risky substance use? SBIRT stands for Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment, which is a comprehensive approach to providing early intervention and treatment services to those who have or are at risk of acquiring drug use disorders, as well as those who are at risk of developing these disorders.
SBIRT has been employed in a variety of medical settings, including primary care offices, hospital emergency rooms, trauma centers, schools, and other community settings. It allows for early intervention with at-risk substance users before more serious effects arise or to reduce the current symptom of patients.
In SBIRT, there are three major steps
Screening: Screening is a method of identifying patients with risky substance usage patterns. Several questions are asked by healthcare professionals to determine the severity of the patient’s symptoms and substance use, and appropriate treatment is proposed accordingly.
Brief Intervention: The purpose of this brief intervention is to improve insight and knowledge regarding substance use, as well as motivation to modify the behavior of patients in consuming the substance. It consists of one or several short sessions, which can be tailored according to the patient’s needs and goals.
Referral to Treatment: In this step, those who are recognized as needing more intensive therapy than the SBIRT program can give are sent to specialist treatment, and the healthcare professionals will set goals with the patients to reduce the severity of substance dependence.
The benefit of using SBIRT is, this approach lowers the cost of healthcare, reduces the patient’s dependence on medicine and alcohol, as well as reduces the risk of trauma. It can also be applied flexibly depending on the patient’s need. Also, SBIRT has proven its effectiveness by successfully reducing patients’ drug and alcohol dependence in many cases.
The Substance Education Institute provides video courses for SBIRT. With this video course, you will learn the technique of conducting SBIRT effectively and alternative treatment methods for your patience, and you can get a certification.
If you want to know more about Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), or are interested in getting a certification for it, please visit the Substance Education Institute for more details and learn about what you can do with this certification. https://substanceei.com/topics/sbirt/
Are you looking for free cme credits in Utah? We are here to help, SBIRT at the Substance Abuse institute in Utah offers free SBIRT training.
