Country-wide distance training for delivery of screening and brief intervention for problematic substance use: A pilot evaluation of participant experiences and patient outcomes

Background: In this study, the authors evaluated if the 120-hour distance learning (DL) course SUPERA (an acronym in Portuguese meaning "System for detection of excessive use or dependence on psychoactive substances: brief Intervention, social reinsertion and follow-up") was an effective way to train health professionals and social workers to apply screening and brief intervention (SBI) for patients with substance use disorders. Methods: In the first phase, 2420 health professionals or social workers, who had completed the course, answered an online survey about their use of the SBI. In the second phase, 25 of those professionals applied the ASSIST (Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test) followed by a brief intervention (BI) to patients with substance use disorders. Three months after the SBI delivery, independent researchers followed up 79 patients who had received SBI, reapplying the ASSIST and a questionnaire to evaluate the patients'/clients' satisfaction with the intervention they received. Results: In the first phase, it was found that most health professionals and social workers who completed the course applied the SBI in their work and felt very motivated to do it. In the second phase of the study, at a 3-month follow-up, most patients had significantly reduced their ASSIST scores in respect of alcohol and cocaine/crack in relation to their baseline levels. Those patients classified by their ASSIST score as "suggestive of dependence" presented a significant reduction in their scores regarding alcohol, tobacco, and cocaine/crack, whereas those classified as "at risk" presented a reduction in respect of alcohol problems only. Patients associated changes in their substance use with the SBI received. Conclusions: A reduction in substance use-related problems was associated with the SBI applied by the health professionals or social workers trained by the DL course SUPERA. Two significant limitations of this study were the small number of participants (professionals and patients in the follow-up) and the absence of a control group in the second phase of the study.