The grant will be used to train and educate students on the Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) approach to patient care, a method of early intervention and treatment for people with (and those at risk for) substance use disorders. Students who become trained in SBIRT will learn how to identify substance-abuse-disorder behaviors, facilitate positive behavior changes, and deliver appropriate referrals. Over the course of three years, approximately 175 students in the PA program will receive SBIRT training.

“With the opportunity for SBIRT training, Touro PA students will develop the necessary leadership skills to encourage the use of SBIRT throughout the health care system,” says Ariana Murphy, MS, PD, Academic Coordinator of the Touro Manhattan PA Program and Project Director of the SBIRT grant. “This confidence will allow our students to apply their SBIRT-learned skills in any medical discipline setting and help reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness in our communities.”

SBIRT training will also expand to offer Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits to program graduates, preceptors and other health care professionals, says Murphy. 

The Touro Manhattan PA program prides itself on standing at the forefront of addressing matters in behavioral health medicine.  In summer 2014, the program introduced a PA elective Behavioral Health track for students interested in developing advanced skills in the field of psychiatry.

In addition to Touro College, SAMHSA has funded College SBIRT grant programs at the University of Arizona, University of California Los Angeles, University of Delaware, University of Hartford, University of Hawaii at Manoa, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and others.