Course

In this presentation, Dan Suter speaks to the intersection of harm reduction and mental health care while highlighting the prevalence of comorbid substance use disorders and mental illnesses. Dan outlines specific barriers that people who use drugs face when accessing mental health care. Additionally, he shares a variety of screening tools for mental health diagnoses, including but not limited to the Clinically Useful Anxiety Outcome Scale (CUAOS), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ). In this discussion, he highlights the strengths and limitations of the various tools in the context of providing care to people who use drugs. Dan also outlines various ways to limit side effects from psychotropic medications.