Many adults face substance abuse and mental health problems at the same time. These two problems are often linked, and it’s hard for individuals to get good treatment without case management to cut through the red tape. Up to 70 percent of individuals treated for substance abuse have a lifetime history of depression.

Between 23 and 56 percent of individuals with diagnosable Axis I mental disorders also have a substance abuse or dependence disorder. Case management is needed because, in most jurisdictions, services are fragmented and inadequate to meet the needs of the substance-abusing population.

This lack of coordinated services results from a variety of factors, including:

• Different funding streams. Substance abuse treatment is funded from a variety of sources -block grants, competitive grants, state and local funding, criminal justice funding, and others.
• The different requirements or goals of these sources can result in a piecemeal approach to programming
• Funding focused on single modalities rather than a continuum of care
• Inadequate funding created by missing pieces in the continuum
• Barriers between systems (e.g., mental health vs. substance abuse, criminal justice vs. mental health and substance abuse)

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