Fort Campbell Army Substance Abuse Program, or ASAP, and Substance Use Disorder Clinical Care, or SUDCC, work with Soldiers in the realm of substance abuse, but staff at each organization said there are key differences between the two that people should know.
Prevention vs. treatment
ASAP and SUDCC are both valuable resources on Fort Campbell that can help Soldiers, leaders, and Families cope with substance abuse issues, said Matthew Younger, ASAP prevention branch chief.
Recent changes to the structure of ASAP have led to some confusion in the community about where to seek treatment, Younger said.
“A few years ago, ASAP used to have both treatment and prevention,” he said. “SUDCC used to be ASAP clinical, but now SUDCC is under MEDCOM. So, ASAP now is the prevention side of the program and SUDCC is the clinical treatment side of the program. That’s the difference between them.”
Georgina Gould, SUDCC Clinical Director, Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, said ASAP and SUDCC are also found in different locations.
“Our providers are housed in the embedded behavioral health clinics located in the footprints of most brigades,” Gould said.
Staci Scarcello, ASAP specialist, said ASAP is primarily responsible for education, training, and prevention, and that the scope of their services isn’t limited to substance abuse.
“We have drug testing for both civilian and military. We have prevention such as training for drug and alcohol, and we train risk reduction and prevention coordinators,” she said. “We gather all the data throughout the month to look at trends and then give that back to our commanders and we also do suicide prevention.”
Younger said SUDCC is the point of contact for Soldiers who think they need to go through rehabilitation or who are certain they already have a substance use disorder.
“SUDCC is the clinical side, so they will do referrals,” he said. “They will also do a biological, psychological, and social screening of the Soldier to determine if the Soldier has a substance use disorder or alcohol use disorder. Depending on what comes out of that screening, they will determine if that Soldier should be enrolled in treatment.”
Soldiers who are not enrolled in treatment will go to the Army Drug and Alcohol Prevention Training, or ADAPT, a two-day intervention program, Younger said. Army policy now instructs that all Soldiers who have a drug or alcohol incident will go to ADAPT, he said.
Treatment could last several months and depends on each Soldier’s individual needs and circumstances, he said.
The treatment process includes group and individual sessions.
Self-referral
Younger said Soldiers have the option to refer themselves for treatment if they recognize they have a substance use disorder and are ready to seek help.
That decision to self-refer is the wisest decision a Soldier can make in those circumstances, he said.
Younger said self-referral can save a person’s career and life.
Gould said the biggest misconception with self-referral is that there will be consequences.
“SUDCC can assist service members in deciding whether or not they want to make lifestyle changes that can improve the quality of their lives in many arenas including Family, career, spirituality, fitness and overall health,” she said. “The behaviors of someone who may not be ready to make these changes are what can contribute to ending someone’s career, not the program.”
Self-referral, however, has its limits, he said. It is only applicable to substance use, not distribution. Soldiers who are caught selling, distributing, or possessing illicit substances are not subject to self-referral protections.
Likewise, Soldiers are not entitled to the protection offered by self-referral if there has already been an incident.
“You can only self-refer as long as you don’t fail a urinalysis or know about one, and you haven’t had an incident such as a DUI,” Younger said. “If you have a DUI on Saturday, you can’t go in on Monday and say you want to self-refer. On the same note, you can’t arrive for a scheduled urinalysis and refuse to complete one by saying you want to self-refer. You can self-refer but you will be penalized for failing the drug test.”
For more information about ASAP, call 270-798-4411 or visit https://home.army.mil/campbell/index.php/about/Garrison/dhr/asap-services. For more information about SUDCC, call 270-412-3247.
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