Dual Diagnosis Programs

The integrated treatment approach for patients with ‘dual diagnoses’ first began to emerge in the early 1980s in New York. It developed out of therapies offered by an outpatient mental health clinic where counselors saw a number of patients suffering from mental illness as well as substance abuse problems. Few facilities offered the full range of help these individuals required, because mental health clinics were not equipped to help those with drug abuse problems, while drug-abuse treatment programs were not able to offer the expertise required for treating those with coexisting mental illness. Dual diagnosis programs were developed to encompass a broader spectrum of therapeutic treatments for this group of people.
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