Treatment program for dual-diagnosis substance abusers   61

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Dual-diagnosis mentally ill patients, i.e. those characterized with substance abuse problems combined with mental health problems, are a challenge both for systems treating substance abusers and for mental health services. These patients are not easily integrated in either of these health care systems and/or are treated only for one aspect of their problem by each of these systems.

For such patients, it is necessary to create a separate treatment model, combining care of the problem of substance abuse and attention to the patient's mental pathology, according to his individual personality traits.

For purposes of this program, a treatment setting operating on the model of a therapeutic community is proposed. This setting will open an affiliated treatment program for dual-diagnosed patients, which will not be part of the therapeutic community but will be affiliated with it.