Dual Diagnosis

A high percentage of patients present with both mental illness and substance misuse disorders (i.e. dual diagnosis).   This has led us to focus on the development of this area of our service.   In keeping with the Department of Health's Dual Diagnosis Good Practices Guide (DH 2002) we have emphasized an integrated Multi-Disciplinary service, following a cycle of change model.

We are introducing an integrated care pathway that will provide the following areas of care:

• The screening and continuous assessment of both mental illness and substance misuse problems.
• A psychosocial care package to include three types of group work: CBT for Psychosis, Motivational Interviewing and Psycho-education Groups.
• An emphasis on relapse prevention as part of discharge planning.
• To improve clinical collaboration with local mental health and substance misuse services.

Our aim is to provide a high quality dual diagnosis service in line with the Department of Health's recent guidelines ‘Dual Diagnosis in Mental Health Inpatient and Day Hospital Settings' (October 2006).