Orange County Student Mental Health

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Referral to Treatment Quick Guide

Source: California School-Based Health Alliance

Resource Type: Documents and Print Media

Audience(s): Educators, Health or Mental Health Professional, School Staff or Administrators

Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an evidence-based approach to the screening and identification of individuals engaged in substance use, the delivery of early brief interventions in order to reduce use, and the referral to treatment for high-risk use. The California School-Based Health Alliance (CSHA), with funding from the California Youth Opioid Response Grant, created this quick guide for SBIRT in school-based health centers (SBHCs) in an effort to reduce youth opioid use. This quick guide focuses on referral to treatment, including referral to medication-assisted treatment in response to opioid use disorder (OUD). Referral to treatment is intended for youth who have a substance use disorder (SUD) and therefore need specialty SUD treatment that is typically beyond the scope of primary care settings such as SBHCs.