Co-Occurring Disorders Program

Hope Network is committed to providing a welcoming, accessible, integrated, continuous and comprehensive model of services for consumers with co-occurring disorders. To achieve this end, a variety of means are used, based on eight key principles. These principles are evidence-based, derived from consensus practice in both mental health and substance use disorder treatment systems, applying to all individuals with co-occurring disorders. These principles are used  to solve clinical and program problems, and to develop staff competencies in serving individuals with co-occurring disorders.

Program Principles

1. Dual diagnosis is an expectation, not an exception, for consumers entering our treatment services.
2. Success includes the availability of welcoming, empathic, hopeful treatment relationships with professionals who provide continuing care across multiple treatment episodes and various levels of care.
3. Coordinated treatment with other treatment professionals and programs who can help assess and assist with treatment planning for consumers with high or low psychiatric illnesses and/or high or low substance disorders.
4. Case management/care and emphatic detachment confrontation must be appropriately balanced within a comprehensive system of care.
5. Each disorder should be considered primary and treated as such.
6. Mental illness and substance disorders are examples of chronic, biopsychosocial disorders that are best understood and treated using a disease and recovery model.
7. There is no one correct dual diagnosis program or intervention.
8. Individualized desired outcomes, including considerations such as harm reduction, symptom reduction and management, readiness for change, and treatment adherence.

The Co-Occurring Treatment Specialist and Peer Support Specialist utilize evidence-based practices such as motivational interviewing, which assists the consumers through the stages of change, as well as the IDDT (Integrated Dual Diagnosis Treatment) tool kit, which measures fidelity and outcomes as they relate to services provided for those with co-occurring disorders.

Program Features

• Co-Occurring Treatment Specialist
• Peer Support Specialist
• Weekly Dual Recovery Meetings
• Implementation of evidence-based practices, utilizing fidelity measures and outcomes as a way to demonstrate process through the stages of change
• Trainings focused on co-occurring disorders, treatment interventions and motivational strategies
• Linkage to community resources for individual recovery
• The development of a Relapse Prevention and Recovery Plan
• A Community Integration Process that is in coordination with community case management services, focusing on successful integration and independent living
• Creating a "culture" within all of Hope Network Behavioral Health residential facilities that is welcoming and recovery-based
• Treatment is carried out in partnership and collaboration with the person served, assessing their stage of change, and utilizing the appropriate stage matched interventions for individualized treatment
• A Peer Support Specialist participating in regular trainings and activities that will enhance knowledge provide confidence and offer opportunities for individual growth

Program Requirements

• All consumers eligible for co-occurring treatment services will be referred by their case manager utilizing the referral form process
• Any community discharges or internal transfers will be communicated by the acting case manager
• All dual recovery meetings are co-led by a Peer Support Specialist
• All dual recovery meetings are offered at least once a week in the supervised residential settings as well as in the community
• The Co-Occurring Treatment Specialist is credentialed in providing substance abuse services, linking consumers and assessing their needs accordingly based on evidence-based models for co-occurring disorders
• The Co-Occurring Treatment Specialist will provided 1:1 support to those consumers that make a request or are referred by the acting treatment team
• Hope Network Behavioral Health has adopted the MH/SA integrated program for co-occurring disorders, and all staff are trained in this model by the Co-Occurring Treatment Specialist
• Hope Network Behavioral Health has adopted the MacFarlane Multifamily Psycho educational model, with two staff persons identified to lead this initiative. The Co-Occurring Specialist is involved in this project, provides an overview training at the educational seminars presented to all family members
• Ongoing evaluation of readiness for change is assessed and documented by the Co-Occurring Treatment Specialist in a weekly progress note, clinical progress is routinely shared with the acting treatment teams