Self-directed activity: Administering the ASSIST, a role-playing exercise

 

Self-directed activity: Administering the ASSIST, a role-playing exercise

Instructions

  1. Please select a local peer with whom you can take turns playing the roles of interviewer and client, as outlined in The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST). Read the instructions on p. 56 of the document (do not read the scripts in advance).This peer may be someone who is enrolled in this NextGenU course, but does not have to be. They may or may not have any knowledge of substance use disorders.
  2. The person playing the patient should read 'Client script ASSIST v3.1 (Chloe) Responses for paired role play' (pp. 57-61). The person playing the interviewer first should read 'Client script WHO/ASSIST v3.1 (Dave) Responses for paired role play' (pp. 62-65).
  3. When administering the ASSIST in this simulation, please also practice using the ASSIST v3.1 feedback report card in Appendix C (pp.49-52), explaining the relevant information for each substance that is of moderate or high risk to the simulated patient. You should repeat the exercise so that you have played both he patient and the interviewer role. It is useful to play both the patient and the interviewer to become familiar with how it feels to ask and to be asked the questions. You should repeat the exercise until you feel comfortable asking the questions and giving the feedback.
  4. We recommend that you practice further by administering the ASSIST to other volunteers/peers, explaining you will maintain full confidentiality, and that they can simulate answers as they wish (i.e., they do not need to answer truthfully). Students who work with or anticipate working with patients whose language is not English may practice with the translated version of the ASSIST and feedback card. In Appendix E (p.54) of The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST), there is information about obtaining the ASSIST in other languages.

You may wish to take notes, but you do not need to submit anything for this activity. In this NextGenU training, you will need to demonstrate to your mentor that you can adequately perform the screening and giving patient feedback using the ASSIST. This will be the object of a mentored activity later on in this training.