The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST)
Manual for use in primary care
Overview
The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) was developed for the World Health Organization (WHO) by an international group of researchers and clinicians as a technical tool to assist with early identification of substance use related health risks and substance use disorders in primary health care, general medical care and other settings.
This manual is a companion to ‘The ASSIST linked brief intervention for hazardous and harmful substance use: manual for use in primary care’ and is based on ‘The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST): Guidelines for Use in Primary Care. Draft Version 1.1 for Field Testing’.
The purpose of this manual is to introduce the ASSIST and to describe how to use it in health care settings – particularly community based primary health care settings – to identify people who are using substances, so that a brief intervention (or referral) can be provided, as appropriate.
The manual will describe:
- rationale for screening and brief intervention;
- problems related to substance use;
- the development and validation of the ASSIST;
- how to use the ASSIST (administration, scoring and interpretation of scores);
- motivational interviewing tips to facilitate the
- process of asking about substance use;
- how to incorporate ASSIST screening in everyday practice.
Related publications:
The WHO ASSIST project aims to support and promote screening and brief interventions for psychoactive substance use by health professionals to facilitate prevention, early recognition and management of substance use disorders in health care systems with the ultimate goal of reducing the disease burden attributable to psychoactive substance use worldwide.The ASSIST package is part of the WHO ASSIST project and was developed to help the primary health professionals to detect and manage substance use and related problems in primary and general medical care settings.
The package includes three different manuals;
(1) The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) (this publication);
(2) The ASSIST-linked brief intervention for hazardous and harmful substance use; and
(3) Self-help strategies for cutting down or stopping substance use: a guide.