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Accredited for Outpatient Mental 

Health Services for Adults, 

Children & Adolescents  

A United Way Agency

Integrated Dual-Diagnosis Treatment program targets mental illness and substance abuse

To meet an emerging community need, The Josselyn Center provides a Integrated Dual-Diagnosis outpatient program for adults. This program  provides “state-of-the-art” integrated treatment for adult clients who have co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders.

At least 50% of Americans with severe mental illness such as major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia also abuse illicit drugs or alcohol, compared to about 15% of the general population. People with co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse are more likely to be hospitalized, attempt suicide, be unemployed and/or homeless, and have legal problems.

Treatment resources have been scarce for these clients, and most who have these problems have received minimal or no substance abuse treatment. 

Differing philosophies and methods have complicated effective approaches in the past. Often, mental health professionals believed that substance abuse was a symptom of mental illness, while addiction professionals saw mental illness as a manifestation of substance abuse. Currently, there is a new clinical awareness of the reciprocal nature of these two illnesses. The results are more successful when treating these co-occurring disorders with an integrated approach.  

Josselyn’s new integrated outpatient Integrated Dual-Diagnosis program focuses on interventions that continuously address both disorders over time. Specific program components include group therapy, individual therapy, case management, psychiatric medication management, family participation, and other services as individually required. The entire Josselyn Adult Treatment Team has participated in in-service education on the Integrated Dual-Diagnosis model and has learned motivational enhancement strategies that help clients take the positive steps they need into treatment.

The new services for mental illness and substance abuse in Integrated Dual-Diagnosis treatment have other unique characteristics besides their integration. Regardless of the level of their desire to change, clients are welcomed with a warm, empathic and hopeful attitude. While the assessment process includes a measure of each client’s interest in addressing recovery, abstinence is not a requirement to begin treatment. Abstinence is a goal that clients work towards, sometimes with harm reduction as the interim goal. Since relapse is a signature symptom of both mental illness and addiction, clients are not treated punitively for experiencing them; relapses are viewed as occasions to learn for the future.

For further information on this important service or to arrange an assessment interview, please contact Mariann Smith, at 847-441-5600, x 134.  

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