Drug and alcohol services - co-occurring substance use and mental health concerns: survey

4. Key Considerations

The research shows that around three quarters of respondents (76%) said that the majority of service users who attend their service presented with co-occurring substance use and a current mental health concern. Therefore it is crucial to understand how substance use services can support these service users. There are some key considerations that emerged:

• Although the majority of respondents (63%) reported that their service were able to offer mental health support for service users who present with a new mental health concern, 37% of respondents said they were unable to. It is important to consider how to improve resources within more substance use services to be able to provide mental health support for people who use substances.
• Effective relationships and communication between services are required to encourage continued care for the service user.
• Procedures should be implemented to ensure that referral protocols are in place, followed and have an agreed revision date and process.
• Consideration needs to be given to addressing the different challenges experienced by specific groups of service users.
• It is necessary to promote cultural change in some services to reduce stigma towards people who use drugs.
• It would be beneficial to gather a representative sample of alcohol and substance use services in Scotland with which future research on services and service user needs could be conducted.