Family Counseling Center has integrated treatment services for persons who suffer from both a mental health and a substance abuse disorder. A full range of individual, group, peer support, housing and vocational services are available; using evidence-based treatment practices such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Relapse Prevention Therapy (RPT), Motivational Interviewing (MI) and the tools found in SAMHSA’s Integrated Dual Disorders Toolkit and Tip 42. Enhancement to our integrated programs is on-going with the goal of reaching fully integrated, evidence-based treatment services for adults with co-occurring disorders by July 1, 2009 in our Kennett, Hayti, Poplar Bluff, and Cape Girardeau facilities.

The overriding principles of our integrated treatment programs are to:

Strengthen collaborative relationships among partners that will guide the course of change in the system of care
Leverage resources to increase consistency in service delivery and sustain improvements over time
Implement best practices that maximize efficient, coordinated care and produce improved clinical outcomes.
Estimates from the Missouri Department of Mental Health indicate that 80,000 Missourians who have a serious mental illness also abuse alcohol or illegal drugs. People with co-occurring disorders usually become victims of bouncing from one treatment program to another, with marginal improvements in their ability to sustain recovery of either disorder. Fragmented treatment is proven to be ineffective; people must have available treatment services by an integrated team that can treat both illnesses at the same time and in the same location. Anything less will ultimately result in mental health or substance abuse relapses, poor physical health and negative social outcomes. This creates additional costs in terms of emergency room visits, homelessness, hospitalizations and legal problems.

To accomplish the enhancement of treatment services for adults with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders; we are using a four-part strategy:

Early screening of clients using comprehensive clinical assessment tools
Clinical interventions using evidence-based treatment practices that have a proven track record to improve client outcomes
Implementation of technologies, such as tele-psychiatry, to bring services to clients in ways that leverage resources to reduce the overall treatment cost-per-client
Strengthen our community relationships to help guide the overall system of care
Family Counseling Center is collaborating with the Missouri Foundation for Health on our integrated co-occurring treatment project.