What is a Substance Abuse Assessment?

A substance abuse assessment is similar to a test you take in high school. Sometimes it's a series of multiple-choice or essay questions, and sometimes it's like an oral exam where you answer the instucter directly. The difference is that there is no way to pass or fail. It's simply a tool that helps professionals get the right help for those who need it.

The Intimidation Factor

• Whether it's a work-based performance evaluation or a substance abuse assessment, evaluations of any kind often give way to insecurity, and that feeling of insecurity may be doubled when you take into account that someone is going to be probing various personal details of your life.
  The very thing that makes it especially frightening, however, can also be a source of comfort. It's not a job interview where calculating personnel people coldly compare applicants like chess pieces or a performance evaluation to determine who gets to keep her job. There is no rejection involved in a substance abuse assessment.

What's Involved?

• A substance abuse assessment usually starts with a questionnaire or a series of questions asked by someone directly. Some facilities may make an assessment based on those questions alone. Often the questionnaire will be passed on to a substance abuse professional, who will ask a few more questions to expand on the information and then make a determination.

Why It's Necessary

• Diagnosis of an addiction is only one of the reasons assessments are necessary. Mental health or substance abuse counselors also have to determine is whether or not to send patients through a detoxification program. Some may even take past trauma or mental illnesses into account. If a person suffers from depression, for instance, the counselor may recommend dual-diagnosis treatment rather than treatment in a traditional 12-step program.

Detox and Dual Diagnosis

• Detoxification is the process of removing all of the toxins that long-term drug or alcohol abuse leaves behind. It can last for up to a week, and it primarily involves "drying" a person out in a safe environment with medical staff.
  Dual-Diagnosis treatment is a relatively new trend in the treatment of addiction, and it may or may not be available in your area. It implements counseling or analysis in addition to traditional addiction therapy.

Where It's Done

• The assessment may be done over the phone in some instances. Other times it's done directly at the treatment center or through a middleman, such as a government-subsidized program that specializes in making assessments. Be prepared to answer similar questions more than once as you may be required to answer questions over the phone, at a facility that specializes in assessments and when enrolling at the treatment center in-person. It can be a tedious process, but it's well worth the time when the results often include gaining a life worth living.