one of the things that howard university and howard university hospital has identified was that we have a large population of at-risk drinkers, substance abuse patients, and that we wanted to find a way to try to really help our population. we didn't have enough social workers or frontline people to do it. so what we had done was put together a proposal to train our residents. and samhsa was very helpful in that and provided us with a grant to train our residents and our staff about screening, brief intervention, and referral for treatment. so when a patient comes in on whatever service... they may not have come in for an alcohol or substance abuse problem, but the results of the discussion may have been screening that patient just to see, is this person at risk? and once you have done that, you really go through a process of educating the residents and staff about how you can have open-ended questions, affirmative listening, reflective listening, that really allows a person to open up and tell you what is going on. now we know physicians and health care personnel are very busy, so the

at what started out to be a clinic at a contraband camp and later becomes the basis for howard university hospital. so it was a re

doctor in what started out to be a clinic at a contraband camp that was later the basis for howard university hospital. so it was a real person. now, it's one thing to have the re-enactments take place when it's just somebody in a union uniform and somebody in a confederate uniform. but you have an african-american show up with auniform, bullets in the

and program developer, screening, brief interventions and referral to treatment program, howard university hospital, washington, dc. fran, what is the definition of behavioral health, and how do we distinguish between prevention, early intervention, and treatment within that definition? the definition for behavioral health for samhsa is we are taking the substance abuse and mental health prevention, intervention, and treatment programs, and we are encasing it within the disorder realm. so substance abuse, prevention, intervention, and treatment are exactly the same, same levels, and so is mental health. we are finding that mental health properties for prevention, especially, are very similar to the properties of substance abuse, and treatment is different in one respect, but the intervention to get people into treatment is very similar. it is similar, but there are differences between the treatment aspect of substance use disorders and mental illnesses, correct? yes, there are. we have different treatment centers for substance abuse. we often have centers for treatment. in mental health, mental hea

that can you talk a little bit about what role hospitals... and you know-and we are using howard university hospital as an example-are doing or should be doing in order to engage in these efforts? i am glad you asked that question, ivette. the hospital has suicide prevention, suicide groups as well as recover... people who have recovered from post-traumatic stress disorder. so there are some groups to help and address some of these issues, but there is still a larger community that we need to get help to. the identifying and screening, not only for just substance abuse but for the mental health that jordan was talking about previously so you can identify patients a little earlier. you start seeing the patterns: this person got shot last year, now they got shot this year, they're under the age of 17 and as a trend may go... that third time may be a fatal one. so getting the family involved, getting the child protective services, getting our community involved to really try to address some of the greater issues that may be going on and not just putting the patient right back out on the street, but you

hospital. police have not released any information on the possible suspect. >>> this morning, another local school is trying to contain a norovirus outbreak. howard university says a number of students report having severe stomach pains. the university is asking students and staff to take extra precautions so they also don't get sick. earlier this month, you'll recall that george washington university dealt with an outbreak, and last week the virus forced one elementary school in westmoreland county, virginia, to close. >>> while you were sleeping, a massive explosion at a biodiesel plant. firefighters in galveston, texas, fought these flames all night. apparently a tank exploded last night, and the resulting fire lit up the night sky. the flames also spread to a second tank. the fire is out now, but still no word on what started it. >>> well, no financial help in sight. the postal service is about to make unprecedented cuts. starting in may the postal service will begin closing more than 260 mail processing centers around the country. about 35,000 postal workers are expected to lose their jobs as part of the move. four centers in maryland and four in virgi