Division on Addiction, Cambridge Health Alliance and Responsibility.org Launch Groundbreaking Program to Identify Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders Among Drunk Drivers
Research shows DUI offenders often suffer from unidentified and untreated mental health disorders in addition to substance use disorders
Source: Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility
June 19, 2017
Today the Division on Addiction, Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and Responsibility.org announced a new program to identify often undiagnosed mental health and substance use issues affecting drunk drivers, especially repeat drunk drivers. The Computerized Assessment and Referral System (CARS) is a first-of-its-kind screening and assessment tool for use in DUI intervention and treatment, specifically targeting the underlying mental health conditions often found in drivers with multiple DUI arrests and convictions. The screening and assessment tool is tied to a report generator accompanied by a referral database.
“Conditions like attention deficit disorder or anxiety may not initially appear to be connected to a DUI offense, but are often found in repeat offenders,” said Responsibility.org President and CEO Ralph Blackman, noting that recent studies have found an important link between repeat offenders and the existence of substance use disorders and undiagnosed, untreated mental health disorders. “The CARS tool quickly and easily identifies offender issues that will assist practitioners in making appropriate sentencing, supervision and treatment decisions for DUI offenders.”
The free online screening and assessment tool is easy to use and understand. CARS has three versions: A self-screening tool, a screening tool that can be administered by clinicians and non-clinicians, and a full assessment tool. CARS generates immediate personalized diagnostic reports that contain information about a client’s mental health profile, a summary of risk factors, and targeted referrals to treatment services within the individual’s geographic area that match his or her needs.
“This tool was developed to assist practitioners in their efforts to examine the mental health and substance use challenges facing repeat drunk driving offenders. With that guidance in hand the right course of treatment and sanctions can then be determined,” said Howard Shaffer, PhD, the Morris E. Chafetz Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Field of Behavioral Sciences at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Division on Addiction at the Cambridge Health Alliance.
CARS was piloted last year in courts and treatment settings in California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. “The CARS tool identified previously undiagnosed conditions that likely have contributed to repeat DUI behavior. The CARS tool will help offenders get the treatment they need to stop their dangerous behavior, thereby saving lives on our roads,” said Dr. Shaffer.
To learn more about the CARS tool, please visit www.CARStrainingcenter.org.