Managing substance use for clients with serious mental illnesses: Knowledge, attitude, and training challenges among outpatient behavioral health providers in California, Ohio, and New York.

Purpose: Individuals with serious mental illness have high rates of substance use. The most commonly used substances among this population are alcohol and cannabis, and whether clinical providers delivering mental health services feel adequately prepared to address substance use is unclear. While information about the effects of alcohol are well established, the effects of cannabis are less well known and staff may feel less confident in their abilities to assess its use and may rely on more informal sources to learn about it.