Case Study of Terry: Treating Substance Abuse Disorders

Running head: CASE STUDY OF TERRY
CASE STUDY OF TERRY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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CASE STUDY OF TERRY
Introduction:
The case study shows that patient named Terry suffers from depression and was not
properly educated and hence cannot manage symptoms successfully. He had thereby developed
the habit of taking substances to cope with issues increasing the chance of suffering from
substance abuse disorders. The assignment would focus on different aspects of treating such
patients in detailed manner. This would first explain the identification and screening procedures
needed for understanding the severity of risks and symptoms associated with the patient and
following these treatment plans and referrals should be done. It would also talk about the
different services available in community of Terry and referring him to the best one. This would
then be followed by different important aspects that healthcare professionals need to follow for
ensuring quality care to such patients.
Importance of drug and alcohol test:
Drug and alcohol assessment helps in informing a comprehensive care as well as the
management plan that can successfully meet all the important needs of the individuals (Ennis et
al., 2015). Such assessments initially focus on the different causes of the presenting intoxications
and secondarily are seen to aim in establishing the drug and alcohol use frequency of the patient,
risks and levels. There is increased number of evidences that high prevalence of co-occurring
mental health and alcohol and other drug problems often referred to as the dial diagnosis
(Shipley et al., 2016). It has been found that dual diagnosis that is found to be highly associated
with poor outcomes of treatments, severe suffering and high service use (Gullo et al., 2015).
These present an important challenge for the healthcare professionals across healthcare centers.
The increased number of incidences of the poor clinical health outcomes including the

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CASE STUDY OF TERRY
significant number of fatal sentinel events in the mental health consumer populations shed light
on the needs and requirements for increased detection and management of co-occurring problems
(Dowling et al., 2017).
Part 1: Assessments and screening of the issues of Terry:
Catchment based intake services act as the primary end point for new clients like Terry
to the alcohol and other drug treatment system and this help the existing clients in moving
through the system. Clients who enter the treatment system need to be triaged by the intake
services as well as comprehensively assessed by their treatment providers (Patel et al., 2016).
Through this process, firstly, the healthcare professionals would be able to identify the severity
of the alcohol and amphetamine drug use of the patient as well as the different broader life issues
(Gullo et al., 2015). Secondly, they also learn to identify the high-risk people for whom an
immediate response is urgent. Third, it helps in identifying people who need further care
interventions (Wilson et al., 2017). Fourth, they also help in obtaining a baseline measure
against which outcomes needs to be mapped over time. Effective tools and guidelines are found
to be available for supporting clinical judgments and high quality joined-up services (Shipley et
al., 2016).
The first part of the assessment would be the intake tool. The intake tool mainly helps the
healthcare professionals in identifying the level of risk and needs of the person and help in
determining the appropriate treatment options (Ennis et al., 2015). Such tools help the
practitioners in supporting and engaging the clients and determining whether comprehensive
assessment and additional treatments and support are required . They also help in notifying
whether bridging support or brief intervention would help in the interim. In this step mainly

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CASE STUDY OF TERRY
screening is done (Gullo et al., 2015). Screening mainly helps in identifying and then starting
fruitful as well as appropriate interventions in patients who are drinking and using drugs above
the low-risk levels. In such cases, the recommended approaches mainly include the concept of
that of quantity frequency estimation that mainly the “how much often” questions. This is then
followed by structured questionnaires (Shipley et al., 2016).
The healthcare professionals attending Terry should first ask him quantity frequency
estimation questions that would mainly ask the important questions. It needs to be assessed that
whether the patient is drinking and using drugs at low levels. This should be done with the
AUDIT tool (Alcohol use disorder and identification test). Ten questions need to be answered by
the patient as the initial form of assessment. For patients drinking over low-risk levels, they
would be provided brief interventions. If he is found to be drinking in the moderate to severe
levels and also include dependence on alcohol, they would necessitate more complete assessment
and concentrated treatment approaches. Once classifying the alcohol use of Terry, further
assessments need to be conducted. (CASE BASED ANALYSIS AND SO NO REFERENCES)
From the scenario, it seems that Terry is abusing substance like amphetamine and alcohol
to a high extent and he might need comprehensive assessment. These are the additional
information that is required by the healthcare professionals to develop ideas about present health
scenario of Terry. The comprehensive assessment tool helps the treatment providers in
determining the level as well as the type of treatment and support required by the presenting
client (Islam et al., 2018). Usually in the beginning of the assessment, baseline data would be
collected from Terry that would include amphetamine use as well as health and well being and
this should be done with the help through a self-completion form (Zugai et al., 2015).. The
comprehensive tool is designed for the utilization in conjunction with the self-completion form