Adult Assessment & Intervention with Substance Abuse

1. Raise the issue

Having some standard, rehearsed assessment questions as well as standardised screening tools, may help make this routine procedure.

This can be as simple as adding a couple of questions to assessment forms such as "Do you ever use alcohol or other drugs?"

A general and simple screening tool adapted from the Severity of Dependence Scale (SDS) can be used for most people. See the NIAAA publication on Screening for other suggestions.