Home > The ATTC/NIATx Service Improvement Blog > Central East ATTC: Implementing Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) in Title X Family Planning Settings
January 15, 2019
Shelly Miller
Consultant, Central East ATTC
Subject Matter Expert, Family Planning
Over the past year, the Central East ATTC collaborated with the Region III, Title X Family Planning Program to integrate the SBIRT model for early intervention and treatment services for substance use disorder within reproductive health care centers. The goal is to build capacity for the Title X provider network to implement substance use screening tools, provide targeted counseling, and when appropriate, refer patients to treatment.
To pilot this project, the Central East ATTC identified five family planning health centers within the region. These sites represented urban and rural locations, Federal Qualified Healthcare Centers (FQHCs), hospitals, and community-based organizations.
1. Orientation and Planning
2. TA on Implementation
3. Evaluation and Conclusion
Subject matter experts presented on numerous topics, including SBIRT Overview, SBIRT billing and coding, Motivational Interviewing, a “Model Clinic,” process mapping, prevalence of SUDs in family planning clinics, and data collection and evaluation. Central East ATTC hosted trainings on SBIRT and motivational conversations at each site, which were open to all staff and community partners.
Understanding that each site is unique, site meetings focused on each agency’s needs to develop its own own implementation plan, which will serve as a roadmap to direct T/TA needs and later to define the agency’s SBIRT policy and procedures. It was essential that throughout this project, Central East ATTC was sensitive to implementing SBIRT in a way that minimized staff time and clinic disruption.
Implementation plans focused on:
Initial findings:
Lessons learned:
As a pilot project, it was essential that there be thoughtful introspection on what worked well and what needed to improve. Evaluation used the PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) model and identified the following issues:
Next Steps:
Shelley Miller has worked in family planning and reproductive health for more than 35 years, beginning her career as a counselor in women’s health. She has since served in a variety of roles including the Director of Patient Services for a large Title X agency and as the Director of Training Performance Improvement for TRAINING 3, a regional training center. Shelley has provided consultation, coaching, training and technical assistance, both nationally and internationally. Currently she is an independent consultant and for the past year has been working with the Central East ATTC in its SBIRT implementation project with Title X.
Contact information: [email protected]| 215-872-2324
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