Abstract
BackgroundDespite the high prevalence of co-morbid substance use among mental health service users (dual diagnosis), very few mental health workers in the UK have had training and/or clinical experience to equip them to deliver targeted interventions to this client group.MethodIn a randomised controlled trial of training for dual diagnosis interventions, 79 case managers from 12 community mental health teams in South London were randomly allocated to either receive training and follow-up supervision (experimental group) or no training and supervision (control group). Baseline measures of attitude, self-efficacy and knowledge were collected prior to randomisation, and were repeated at 18 months post-training. An intention to treat analysis of follow-up data (adjusted for baseline score for that outcome and team) was performed.ResultsAt 18 months post-training, the AAPPQ (The Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Perception Questionnaire) total score was did not differ significantly between the two groups (adjusted difference 7.43 [95% CI -0.86 to 15.71], p = 0.08). There were significant differences in favour of the experimental group on 2 of the 6 subscales of the AAPPQ: 'adequacy of knowledge and skills in working with alcohol" (adjusted difference 3.598 [95% CI 1.03 to 6.16], p = 0.007) and "self-esteem in working with alcohol" (adjusted difference 3.00 [95% CI 0.46 to 5.54], p = 0.021). In addition there were significant improvements for the experimental group on "Knowledge About Dual Diagnosis" (adjusted difference 2.00 [95% CI 0.80 to 3.22], p = 0.002) and "Self-Efficacy Scale" (adjusted difference 13.55 [95% CI 8.00 to 26.86], p = 0.001). The effect of membership of teams was added to the analysis of covariance and this changed the results for only one variable: "self-esteem working with drinkers" was no longer significant.ConclusionA brief training course in dual diagnosis interventions had a significant effect on secondary measures of knowledge and self-efficacy that was detectable at 18 months post-training. Improvements in attitudes towards working with drinkers and drug users in mental health settings failed to reach statistical significance. Future research should explore the effects of dose of dual diagnosis training, and the successful integration of skills gained into routine care.Trial Registration:ISRCTN98891022 14th March 2007
Highlights
Despite the high prevalence of co-morbid substance use among mental health service users, very few mental health workers in the UK have had training and/or clinical experience to equip them to deliver targeted interventions to this client group
The results have demonstrated that the training intervention has positive effects on some of the case manager outcomes when compared to the control group, and that these effects are detectable at 18 months post training
The COMO project had the ambitious remit of training mental health staff to use a dual diagnosis treatment approach using a relatively brief training intervention
Summary
Despite the high prevalence of co-morbid substance use among mental health service users (dual diagnosis), very few mental health workers in the UK have had training and/or clinical experience to equip them to deliver targeted interventions to this client group. It was proposed that mental health services should take a primary role in delivering effective integrated interventions for people with serious mental illness and substance use problems [2]. One possible solution to this discrepancy between the needs of the service users and the capabilities of the workforce is to develop and deliver specific training programmes that would aim to improve the care that people with dual diagnosis receive
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