Addressing Adolescent Substance Abuse in New Mexico by Engaging the State-Funded School Based Health System: Implementation of Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT)

An abstract of a study by Condon et al implementing an evidence-based prevention/early intervention protocol, SBIRT, into the state supported School-based Health Centers (SBHCs) to reduce adolescent substance use through identification, brief intervention and/or referral to higher level of treatment in New Mexico is presented. SBHCs are important part of their adolescent health system in New Mexico and by implementing SBIRT as part of this integrated primary care and behavioral health model they can build on existing State supported infrastructure to implement new evidence-based practices and attempt to reduce youth substance use in adolescent age group.