Affiliations: Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA | Rhode Island Hospital and Brown Medical School,
Providence, RI, USA
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Margaret Christensen, 360 Huntington
Ave. (408 RB), Boston, MA 02115, USA. Tel.: +1 617 373 3623; Fax: +1 617 373
8675; E-mail: m.christensen@neu.edu
Abstract: Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine if a one-day
practice oriented workshop on substance abuse screening, assessment, and brief
intervention (SBI) would improve vocational rehabilitation (VR) counselors' SBI
knowledge and practices. Design: VR counselors (n = 82) attended a one-day training
workshop on SBI. Knowledge and practices were measured before and after the
program and four months later. Participants also identified barriers to
substance abuse in their practices before the workshop. Results: Knowledge test scores improved immediately after the
program, and remained higher than pre-test scores four-months later (p =
0.000). Before the workshop, counselors reported effective practices in all
areas of SA probed, except screening. Four months later, improvements in the
use of screening tools were incremental but highly significant (p = 0.001).
The two most frequently identified barriers were (1) clients' not keeping
referral appointments and (2) time to devote to substance abuse issues with
clients. Conclusions: A one day continuing education training workshop on SBI
improved both VR counselor knowledge and reported practice (use of formal SA
screen) at four months. The implications of these findings are that VR clients
might benefit from the early recognition of at risk use to pre-empt the
development of greater problems around substance abuse. While this study did
not measure outcomes at the client level, it justifies further investigations
of both the routinization of VR counselor substance abuse brief intervention
efforts (SBI) and the ultimate outcomes on clients over a much wider time
frame.
Keywords: substance abuse screening, practice barriers, active learning, training
