Clinical Handbook of Co-existing Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Problems

Co-existing mental health and drug and alcohol problems occur frequently in primary care and clinical settings. Despite this, health professionals rarely receive training in how to detect, assess and formulate interventions for co-existing problems and few clinical guidelines exist.

This Handbook provides an exciting and highly useful addition to this area. Leading clinicians from the UK, the US and Australia provide practical descriptions of assessments and interventions for co-existing problems. These will enable professionals working with co-existing problems to understand best practice and ensure that people with co-existing problems receive optimal treatment. A range of overarching approaches are covered, including:

• working within a cognitive behavioural framework;
• provision of consultation-liaison services, training and supervision;
• individual, group and family interventions; and
• working with rurally isolated populations.

The contributors also provide detailed descriptions of assessments and treatments for a range of disorders when accompanied by drug and alcohol problems, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and learning difficulties.

The Clinical Handbook of Co-existing Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Problems will enhance clinicians’ confidence in working with people with co-existing problems. It will prove a valuable resource for all psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors, social workers and all those working in both primary and secondary care health settings.

Amanda Baker is Associate Professor at the Centre for Mental Health Studies, University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.

Richard Velleman is Professor of Mental Health Research at the University of Bath, UK, and Director of the Mental Health Research & Development Unit, Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, UK.

“The editors have pulled together a veritable ‘who’s who’ of the fields of substance use and mental health from many parts of the world… If the messages of this book about assessment and treatment are heeded… then the quality of treatment provided for co-existing disorders will be substantially improved.” – Wayne Hall, and Michael Farrell, from the Foreword