The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded Marshall University a $315,000 continuation grant to provide Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) training to health care professional students in the region. The funding is part of a $931,000 grant issued in installments since 2015 to teach students how to screen for substance use and mental health concerns.
Amy Saunders, director of the Wellness Center at Marshall and principal investigator of the grant, said 2,050 students and community members have been trained to provide screening, brief intervention and referral for treatment for individuals who are at risk of developing or who have already developed a substance use disorder. Locally, the evidence-based model developed has been a collaboration among the Cabell-Huntington Health Department and Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, School of Pharmacy; School of Physical Therapy; Psychology, Social Work, and Counseling departments, Nursing and Public Health programs; and Wellness Center.
“The program has been a huge success,” Sanders said. “SBIRT at Marshall has not only trained students and community members on this important model, but it has also encouraged more collaboration between departments and interdisciplinary research.”
Saunders said she believes Marshall faculty members and especially the program’s clinical coordinator, Lyn O’Connell, have been working diligently to ensure that their training efforts will continue beyond the life cycle of the grant, which ends in 2018.
“Lyn has gone above and beyond, traveling all around the state to train case managers, nurses, school counselors and many other health care providers,” Saunders said. “Champion faculty members have infused the training into their curriculum, ensuring that SBIRT will be sustained beyond the grant. Also, we could not have trained so many individuals without the help of Frances Quesenberry and our graduate students.”
SBIRT at Marshall University is one of several projects in which the university is working with the City of Huntington’s Office of Drug Control Policy and other community organizations to address the substance use issue at each stage.
To learn more about SBIRT or training at Marshall, contact Saunders at saunde22@marshall.edu.
