Skip to Main Content
Screening Brief Intervention & Referral to Treatment
YSM Home

INFORMATION FOR

SBIRT: Screening Brief Intervention & Referral to Treatment

Substance abuse is a major preventable and treatable public health problem affecting all racial, cultural, and socioeconomic groups with the total annual economic costs to the United States estimated at over $414 billion.1 The consequences of substance abuse affect not only individuals, but the workplace, society and the healthcare system. Although treatment does work, physicians often fail to detect patients with alcohol and other drug problems or initiate referral to treatment. This fact is apparent from the data collected from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).2 Of the 23.6 million people over the age of 12 in the U.S. who need substance abuse treatment, only 2.5 million, or 11% actually receive specialized treatment.

This website will provide the medical practitioner with didactic information, as well as the skills for performing screening, brief intervention and referral for patients who present with the entire spectrum of unhealthy alcohol use. Evidence supporting screening for brief intervention (SBI) as well as course content are provided. This includes a basic slide set of concepts, actual video clips demonstrating the brief negotiated interview (BNI), suggestions for educational formats, cases to use for role–playing and a variety of other helpful content. It is widely acknowledged that skills–based learning is more effective in changing practice then traditional lectures, and therefore we have provided all the essential components necessary for this to occur. We hope that you will incorporate these skills into your daily practice.

  1. Schneider Institute for Health Policy. Substance abuse: the nation’s number one health problem. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, annual report; 2001.
  2. Office of Applied Studies (OAS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2005–2006.

Training Videos: The Emergency Practitioner & The Unhealthy Drinker

Introduction

Alcohol is America's most commonly used drug.

Project ASSERT

Project ASSERT (Alcohol & Substance Abuse Services, Education, and Referral to Treatment) is an innovative program of the Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) Emergency Department that helps patients access drug and alcohol treatment services.

For more information about Project ASSERT, please contact Caitlin Johnson at 203-737-6152 or caitlin.johnson@yale.edu

Scope of the problem

Unhealthy alcohol use is a major preventable public health problem resulting in over 100,000 deaths each year and costing society over 185 billion dollars annually. The effects of unhealthy alcohol use have far reaching implications not only for the individual drinker, but also for the family, workplace, community, and the health care system. Read more...