CASI

The Comprehensive Adolescent Severity Inventory

The CASI is a comprehensive, semi-structured, clinical assessment and outcomes interview.  It is comprised of independent modules, each incorporating objective, focused, and concrete questions. Questions are formatted to identify whether certain behaviors have ever occurred regularly, how old the adolescent was when they first occurred regularly, and whether they occurred regularly during the past year (past month and other 11 months). Each module assesses whether the adolescent acknowledges the presence of problems and obtains his/her rating of discomfort.  Importantly, in addition to collecting information on risk factors and maladaptive behaviors, the CASI also includes questions designed to assess the strength-base of youth. The CASI’s design makes it suitable for administration in a variety of settings, for repeat administration at post-treatment follow-up evaluations, and for assessment of virtually all adolescents regardless of the system to or from which they are referred.

CASI USERS

AOD and Mental Health Treatment System Users: Pre-treatment Biopsychosocial & Program Outcomes within: Residential Programs, Therapeutic Communities, Inpatient Programs, and Outpatient Programs located within Florida, California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Washington, Louisiana.

Juvenile Justice Users: Pre-sentencing and Post-sentencing Biopsychosocial and Program Outcomes within: Family Courts, Drug Courts, and Diversion Programs located within Kansas, Florida, California, New Jersey, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas, New York, Utah. 

In addition to demographic and administrative information, the CASI collects standard, comprehensive, and clinically pertinent information in 10 life areas:

  • Health
  • AOD Use
  • Family Household Member Relationships
  • Mental Health Functioning
  • Stressful Life Events
  • Peer Relationships
  • Legal
  • Education
  • Sexual Behavior
  • Use of Free Time

Many states require or mandate training on the instrument to become “an approved or certified user”, however, few monitor or measure the effectiveness of the training, or the trainees performance upon returning to the workplace. This lack of accountability has lead to the creation of a workforce that is unaware as to whether they are using the tool correctly or not. 

While many interviewers are skilled at asking the questions in the CASI, they are not as skilled or knowledgeable regarding the clinical significance and interpretation of the answers to those questions. Completion of the workshop will provide participants with the knowledge, skills and support materials required to administer and use the CASI more effectively in their clinical settings, and to better understand the relationship and functionality of data collected with the CASI to making substance use disorder diagnosis or diagnostic impressions using the DSM-5, level of care recommendations using the ASAM Criteria, assessing criminogenic risk, screening for trauma, eligibility determinations, and treatment planning.

Understanding the relationship and functionality of the information collected using the CASI to these clinical tasks is important, however, more often than not it is a missing component of standard two day CASI training workshops. Teaching clinicians and counselors how to administer the CASI, without teaching them the clinical significance of the information collected, results in a workforce focused on filling in boxes and completing mandated paper work that has little to no value to them.

This blended learning workshop i.e., the use of the CASI e-Course both before and after the onsite CASI training workshop  provides participants with continued access to content, support materials, quizzes, learning measures and performance feedback. These features along with the evidence based adult learning practices incorporated into the onsite and online courses increases learning and supports the successful transfer and maintenance of learning in the workplace. 

Contrary to most workshops, upon completion of the blended learning process participants know whether they are using the tool correctly or not, and know what areas need continued focus in order to correctly administer the CASI instrument, and better utilize the information collected clinically to inform diagnosis and diagnostic impressions using the DSM-5, level of care recommendations using the ASAM Criteria, criminogenic risk assessments, screening for traum and treatment planning.

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Evidence Based – Proven Effective – Designed For Transfer