Integrated Treatment for Co-occurring Disorders

Dual diagnosis treatments combine or integrate mental health and substance abuse interventions at the level of the clinical encounter. Hence, integrated treatment means that the same clinicians or teams of clinicians, working in one setting, provide appropriate mental health and substance abuse interventions in an integrated fashion. In other words, the caregivers take responsibility for combining the interventions into one coherent package. For the individual with a dual diagnosis, the services appear seamless, with a consistent approach, philosophy, and set of recommendations. The need to negotiate with separate clinical teams, programs, or systems disappears. The goal of dual diagnosis interventions is recovery from two serious illnesses.