Screening and Assessment Methods

Screening and Assessment Methods
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Screening and Assessment Methods
The screening and assessment process in substance abuse disorder constitute a two-step process. The process is used to determine the existence and extent of a substance abuse process. Screening is the process that evaluates the possible presence of a certain disorder. The assessment process involves defining the nature of the problem and developing a specific treatment recommendation for addressing the problem.
The screening process involves verbal, face to face interview, use of screening instrument or a mixture of both. In oral screening aids, the popular screening tools are CAGE and TWEAK AID (Dodgen & Shea, 2000). CAGE is an acronym for four questions: (1) have you felt that you should Cut down on drinking? (2) Have people ever Annoyed you by being critical of your drinking? (3) Have you felt Guilty about your drinking? (4) Have you ever needed to drink the first thing in the morning (Eye-opener)? TWEAK serves as mnemonic for Tolerance to alcohol or drugs, whether or not other have been Worried about substance use, whether the client has used a substance as Eye-opener in the morning, had Amnesia during period of substance use, made any attempt to K (cut) down on substance use. These two methods involve a series of questions that an assessor asks a client. Paper and pencil screening instrument is another method useful in the screening process. It is considered to be less threatening than a face to face interview. In screening for alcohol problems, methods such as Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) are used. Both involve a series of question that a patient is supposed to answer. In testing drug use that is not necessarily alcohol problems, methods such as Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory (SASSI-3) and Drug Abuse Screening Test are popularly used. Other methods that do not necessarily screen substance disorder, but give insight to a patient include the Beck Depression Inventory and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) (Doweiko, 2014).
The assessment process utilizes three formats, namely unstructured, semi-structured and structured. Client's interviews are...