Co-Occurring Disorders:
Screening and Assessment
This 6-hour course will provide the trainee with information and issues related to screening and assessment of patients who have a psychiatric disorder in combination with an alcohol and other drug (AOD) use disorder. This Distance Learning Course (DLC) contains specific information that focuses on tools and methods used when dealing with substance abusing clients who have COD. It is primarily intended for addiction treatment staff. However, it contains information and screening/assessment recommendations that can be used by healthcare providers in a variety of treatment settings. For example, it will be useful to people who work in primary care clinics, hospitals, and various mental health settings.

Goals/Objectives

By participating in this DLC, trainees will:

  1. identify and explain to a classmate five key principles of assessment;
  2. evaluate the use of selected assessment instruments for co-occurring disorders and list preferred usage of these instruments;
  3. list the recommended sequential assessment process as it relates to client with COD;
  4. review additional screening and assessment tools, along with key information on the use of each instrument;
  5. list the use of two specific screening instruments available for unrestricted use and explain the preferred usage protocol of each of these instruments.

Your Course Instructor:
Kevin R. Scheel
MS, MAC, LMFT
Co-Founder, DLCAS

Kevin R. Scheel is a Masters prepared chemical dependency counselor with more than thirty years of experience in the human service field. He has served as the director of programs in the public sector as well as in private care facilities, both in the profit and not-for-profit arenas. He has been involved in the delivery of education services to the field since 1986 as an instructor at McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas, and as a private training consultant with Hazelden. Mr. Scheel is the author of "Alcohol: Chemistry & Culture," as well as a series of education videotapes on the various drugs of abuse, published and marketed by WRS Group, Inc. He has also created a preparation and review manual that is currently in use by a variety of colleges and universities in Texas, designed to aid students preparing for their Texas chemical dependency credential.

While in Texas Kevin served as the Texas Coordinator for the federally funded Project for Addiction Counselor Training (PACT) program. For this project Mr. Scheel designed a 270 hour curriculum for beginning counselors, delivering over 45,000 hours of classroom training to 415 minority students. As a result of his efforts, 268 of these students have gone on to obtain their credentials to practice chemical dependency counseling in Texas.

Kevin also served in the position as Coordinator for the Texas Addiction Training Center (currently the Texas Addition Technology Transfer Center), a federally funded project from the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment in Washington, D.C. The goal of this project has been to increase the level of addiction education to the various disciplines offering counseling services to drug and alcohol affected clients. In Texas this project worked with 8 major colleges and universities.

In addition to his role as a founder of the DLCAS, Kevin is currently serving as the Director of Educational Services for the DLCAS.