Date Presented 03/21/24
This study depicts how a 3-week delivery of educational experiences increased student knowledge, attitudes, competence, confidence, and readiness to conduct screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment for individuals in recovery.
Primary Author and Speaker: Jill Brown
Contributing Authors: Kathleen Schachman, Meghan Baruth
PURPOSE: To measure the effectiveness of entry-level MSOT curriculum for screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment for individuals in recovery from substance use disorders across practice settings.
DESIGN: An experimental single group, pre/post research design was used to measure the effects of a 3-week, 5-step sequential delivery of a recovery protocol designed to increase the capacity of student practitioners. Quantitative data measured changes in attitudes, knowledge, confidence, competence, readiness to screen, intervene, and provide treatment. This study used convenience sampling to recruit 28 students at a mid-western university, after approval from the University’s Institutional Review Board.
METHOD: Participants were provided with a pre-test survey to measure substance use attitudes, knowledge, competence, confidence, and readiness to administer a public health recovery protocol. Students received a 5-step sequential delivery of education, training, and interprofessional practice with community members in recovery. After three weeks, students were provided with a post-test survey to measure capacity to deliver the recovery protocol.
RESULTS: This study revealed significant improvement in attitude from pre to post (p=.001), a significant increase in substance use knowledge (p=.001), a significant increase in confidence (p=.001), a significant increase in readiness (p=.001), and significant increase in competence (p=.001) in student participants to deliver the recovery protocol across practice settings.
CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates increased capacity for conducting a screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment upon initial contact with individuals with a substance use disorder. Increased capacity to expediate critical care across practice settings is an essential skillset needed by practitioners to be effective agents of change in addressing recovery across the continuum of healthcare in the United States.
References
Rojo-Mota, G. Pedrero-Perez, E. J. & Huertas-Hoyas, E. (2017). Systematic review of occupational therapy in treatment of addiction: Models, practice, and qualitative and quantitative research. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 71(5), 7105100030p1–7105100030p11. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2017.022061
Mattila, A., & Provident, I. (2017). Education for occupational therapists to develop the role of healthcare leaders in screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT). Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, 1(3). https://doi.org/10.26681/jote.2017.010304
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2022). Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment. https://www.samhsa.gov/sbirt
