Treatment Basics

The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) is a standardized, semi-structured, multi-focused screening and assessment instrument used to establish the nature and severity of any Medical, Employment, Drug, Alcohol, Legal, Family, Social, and/or Psychiatric Problems a person may present with. The information collected using the ASI has clinical, program evaluation and research utility.

Individuals receiving proven and effective training on the correct use of the ASI generally become very knowledgeable regarding the intended purpose of items/questions that make up the ASI 5th Edition, and overtime become very skilled at eliciting client's responses to those questions. However, many of those same individuals are not as knowledgeable regarding the clinical significance or interpretation of the answers elicited to those questions. Therefore, while the course is primarily designed to achieve the documented goal of developing and/or enhancing the knowledge and skills required to correctly administer the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), it also discusses the clinical significance of the ASI items, and introduces the participant to the relationship and functionality of the information collected to common clinical tasks such as making; a diagnosis/diagnostic impression using the DSM-V, a level of care recommendation using the ASAM Criteria, and developing treatment plans.

Goal:

To develop and/or enhance the knowledge and skills required to correctly administer the Addiction Severity Index (ASI).

Individual Outcomes / Objectives:

Participants will learn: 

• The purpose and clinical significance of the Addiction Severity Index (ASI).
• The purpose and clinical significance of each of the seven sections of the ASI.
• How to introduce the ASI interview and each of the seven sections to the client.
• The purpose and clinical significance of the items in each section of the ASI.
• How to phrase each question in the most efficient way while remaining flexible enough to adapt the instrument to make it more gender, cultural, and population sensitive.
• The recommended probes and additional questions to augment the items in the ASI, and the information provided by the client.
• The coding conventions to correctly code the client's responses to each item in the section. 
• The common errors made when interviewing and/ or coding client responses.
• The recommended items and other information used to verify self report through the use of cross checking.
• To utilize the interviewer severity rating procedure.
• The relationship and functionality of the ASI to ASAM's Six Dimensions.

Professional and Career Relevancy

Learning how to administer and use the ASI correctly is a very marketable skill that should be included on all participants’ resumes. The ASI is currently in use in approximately 35 states, countless more counties, cities and regions. The interviewing skills emphasized and learned during this course can be applied to many other instruments currently used in the Substance Abuse Treatment field. Whether one is actively administering the ASI, or is the recipient of the clinical information collected, this course will increase your understanding of the ASI, and the clinical significance of the information collected with it.

Organizational Outcomes

Treatment organizations employing skilled and competent ASI interviewers who consistently administer the ASI correctly, and understand the clinical significance of the information collected with it, may see:

• More comprehensive and accurate assessments.
• More informed patient placement decisions.
• More informed treatment planning.
• Increased treatment initiation, engagement and retention rates.
• Improved treatment outcomes.