Why suboptimal linkage?
There are many reasons for the lack of services linkage. One well-documented problem is medical clinicians’ perception that treating alcoholism and drug abuse is not providing medical care and is therefore beyond their purview.11 This point of view is slowly changing within the profession, but medical education about these issues was sorely deficient in past years.15 In the mid-1980s, medical students’ lack of knowledge and their attitudes and perceptions about treating patients with alcoholism and about their own clinical skills in this area affected their screening and referral practices resident physicians felt less responsibility for care and had less confidence and more negative attitudes toward patients with alcoholism.13 These reports suggested that curricula needed improvement, and that education, while necessary, may not be enough to encourage better attitudes and practices by physicians. Efforts to improve the situation have been underway, most notably in the past decade, wit
