Treatment for dual diagnosis

Treatment of people with dual diagnosis can be difficult because typically their needs are complex and often long-term.

They may also be difficult to engage and motivate, and have poor medication compliance. There are also social factors to take into account such as lack of housing or access to benefits, which also prevent successful treatment.

An integrated approach to treatment has been found to be most successful as follows:

• Initially, the mental health team should make contact with the person and show them what it has to offer, provide social support, and involve carers and family if appropriate.
  
• When an initial relationship has been established, mental health workers should work to help clients understand the nature of their problems and what can be done about it. At the same time counselling skills like motivational interviewing can be used to help motivate the person into making change.
  
• Active treatment combines medication to treat the mental illness, education, family involvement and cognitive behaviour therapy. Two important factors to the success of treatment are the development of new coping skills and a social network.
  
• The final step of treatment is the prevention of relapse. The person is taught to identify situations in which they may become vulnerable to substance misuse and to learn how to deal with these situations.