The WHO ASSIST package for hazardous and harmful substance use
Overview
Manuals for the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) and the ASSIST-linked brief interventions
The ASSIST package, which consists of a brief questionnaire, a guide for health professionals on how to use the questionnaire in detecting and responding to substance use and also a self-help manual for cutting down or stopping substance use, is the result of more than 10-years work by WHO and an international group of researchers in the framework of the WHO ASSIST project. It is WHO’s response to the growing demand for guidance on how to best manage problems of substance use in non specialist health care settings. This approach, quick and easy to learn, useful for all substances including alcohol and tobacco, but also cannabis, amphetamine-type stimulants, cocaine and opioids, and with its effectiveness demonstrated in different cultural settings, is set to become a keystone in the health care response to substance use.
The package includes three different publications:
 | The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance involvement Screening Test (ASSIST): manual for use in primary careThis manual introduces the ASSIST and describes how to use it in health care settings - particularly community based primary health care settings – to identify people who are using substances and assess the health risks associated with substance use, so that a brief discussion or a referral to specialist centre can be provided as appropriate. | |
 | The ASSIST-linked brief intervention for hazardous and harmful substance use: a manual for use in primary careThis manual explains the rational for providing brief discussion based interventions in health care settings and describe how health care workers can conduct brief interventions for clients whose substance use is putting their health at risk. | |
 | Self-help strategies for cutting down or stopping substance use: a guideThis guide was developed to assist patients who are at risk because of their substance use to weigh up their substance use behavior and to change it using self-help strategies. |
Information systems:
Resources for Substance Use Disorders
Global Information System on Alcohol and Health