Dr. Brian Rush

Co-Director, Senior Scientist

Dr. Brian Rush is a Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he is Co- Section Head of the Health Systems Research and Consulting Unit. At the University of Toronto he is a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, as well as Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. His background is in addiction and community mental health services and systems research, as well as social/psychiatric epidemiology with a focus on co-occurring mental and substance use disorders, evaluation and planning of community prevention, program and policy evaluation, and community needs assessment.

Dr. Rush is a member of the Canadian Association of Psychiatric Epidemiology, Canadian Evaluation Society, and American Evaluation Society. Within CAMH he is active in the Addiction Services Program Advisory Committee, which advises on the goals and operation of addiction treatment at CAMH. Committee issues include integration of research, the role of the CAMH program in larger regional and provincial treatment system, and appropriateness and quality of services. As part of the Drug Policy Group, he advises senior management on substance abuse prevention and treatment policy issues.

Dr. Rush has been involved in several international initiatives. In 2005, he received an Award of Merit for his work in support of the Anti-Drug Secretariat Brazil.

Research

Dr. Rush has worked in a research and evaluation capacity in the substance abuse and mental health fields for more than 30 years. His research interests have included: longitudinal study of the addiction treatment system in Ontario; outcome assessment and performance measurement systems for substance abuse, problem gambling, and mental health services; and prevalence and impact of co-occurring substance and mental disorders. His research findings have been applied many times to needs-based planning and policy analysis for alcohol and drug treatment services in Ontario, other parts of Canada, and internationally. Dr. Rush has been extensively involved in the evaluation of assessment protocols and their relation to outcomes assessment. He is also internationally recognized as an expert in screening for co-occurring disorders. In 2001, he completed a Health Canada report on best practices for the identification, assessment, and treatment of people experiencing co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. He then worked on improving Canadian data in areas such as prevalence rates in the general population and clinical samples. Related work included evaluating various screening tools to improve detection rates. He is consulted widely on regional, provincial, and national issues related to the integration of mental health and substance abuse services.

Expertise

Addiction and mental health services and systems research, mental health and substance abuse co-morbidity, social/psychiatric epidemiology, screening for co-morbidity, evaluation and planning of community prevention and health care systems, program and policy evaluation, and community needs assessment.

Knowledge Transfer and Exchange

Dr. Rush consults widely internationally, nationally, and provincially. He supports CAMH knowledge transfer programs and projects through work in webinars, toolkit design and dissemination, and training workshops. He is frequently asked to deliver training workshops in program planning and evaluation, and he has developed training materials for the World Health Organization.

Teaching - University of Toronto

At the University of Toronto Dr. Rush is a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, and is Associate Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. His academic interests lie in program and policy evaluation, community needs assessment and logic models and tools for program planning and evaluation, and performance monitoring at the organizational and health system levels. He lectures in two courses: Population Health Perspectives on Mental Health and Addictions and Program Evaluation. He also contributes to a course for residents in psychiatry in the Physician Managers program.

Selected Publications (as at July 2009)

Callaghan, R.C., Rush, B.R., Tavares, J., Lawren, T., & Victor, J.C. (in press). Prevalence of primary methamphetamine-related cases and treatment-centre preparedness among youth outpatient substance abuse treatment centres in British Columbia, Canada. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. ROLE: Co-Principal Author.

Rush, B.R., Martin, G., & Corea, L. M. (in press). Monitoring alcohol and drug treatment: What would an optimal system look like? Contemporary Drug Problems. ROLE: Principal Author.

Rush, B.R., Urbanoski, K., Bassani, D., Castel, S., Wild, T.C., Strike, C., Kimberley, D., & Somers, J. (2008). Prevalence of co-occurring mental and substance use disorders in the Canadian population. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 53(12), 800-809. ROLE: Co-Principal Author. SUPERVISORY ROLE: Primary supervisor to trainees underlined.

Rush, B.R. & Koegl, C. (2008) Prevalence and profile of people with co-occurring mental and substance use disorders within a comprehensive mental health system. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 53(12), 810-821. ROLE: Co-Principal Author. SUPERVISORY ROLE: Secondary supervisor to trainees underlined.

Rush, B.R., Bassani, D., Urbanoski, K., & Castel, S. (2008). Influence of co-occurring mental and substance use disorders on the prevalence of problem gambling in Canada. Addiction. 103 (11), 1847-1856. ROLE: Co-Principal Author. SUPERVISORY ROLE: Primary supervisor to trainees underlined.

Mann, R.E., Flam Zalcman, R., Rush, B.R., Smart, R.G., & Rhodes, A. (2008). Alcohol factors in suicide mortality rates in Manitoba. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 53 (4), 243-251, ROLE: Co-Principal Author.

Urbanoski, K.A., Cairney, J., Bassani, D., & Rush, B. (2008). Perceived unmet need for mental health care among Canadians with co-occurring addiction and mental illness. Psychiatric Services. 59(3), 283-289. ROLE: Co-Principal Author. SUPERVISORY ROLE: Primary supervisor to trainees underlined.

Rush, B.R., Scott, C. K., Dennis, M.L., Castel, S., & Funk, R. (2008). The interaction of co-occurring psychiatric problems and recovery management checkups. Evaluation Review. 32 (1), 7-38. ROLE: Co-Principal Author.

Rush, B. R. (2008) On the screening and assessment of mental disorders among clients seeking help from specialized substance abuse treatment services: An international symposium. (Editorial). International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. 6, 1-6. ROLE: Co-Principal Author

Castel, S., Rush, B.R. & Scalco, M. (2008). Screening for mental disorders among clients with addictions: The need for population-specific validation. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. 6, 64 –71. ROLE: Co-Principal Author.

Urbanoski, K.A., Cairney, J., Adlaf, E. & Rush, B. (2007). Substance abuse and quality of life among severely mentally ill consumers: A longitudinal modeling analysis (Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology). ROLE: Collaborator. SUPERVISORY ROLE: Primary supervisor to trainees underlined. , 42(10), 810-818.

Archie, S., Rush, B R., Akhtar-Danesh, N., Norman, R., Malla, A., Roy, P., & Zipursky, B. (2007). Substance use and abuse in first episode psychosis: Prevalence before and after early intervention. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 52(9), 563-571. ROLE: Co-Principal Author.

Urbanoski, K., Rush, B.R., Wild, T.C., Bassani, D. & Castel, C. (2007). The use of mental health care services by Canadians with co-occurring substance dependence and mental illness. Psychiatric Services, 58(7) 962-969. ROLE: Senior Responsible Author. SUPERVISORY ROLE: Primary supervisor to trainees underlined.

Rush, B. R., & Urbanoski, K. A. (2007). Estimating treatment demand for cannabis-related problems in Canada. International Journal of Mental Health and Addictions. April, 1557-1574. ROLE: Senior Responsible Author. SUPERVISORY ROLE: Primary supervisor to trainees underlined.

Rush, B.R., Veldhuizen, S., & Adlaf, E. (2007). Mapping the prevalence of problem gambling and its association with treatment accessibility and proximity to gambling venues. Journal of Gambling Issues, 20 (www.camh.net/egambling).. ROLE: Senior Responsible Author. SUPERVISORY ROLE: Primary supervisor to trainees underlined.

Castel, S., Rush, B.R., Kennedy, S. & Fulton, K. (2007). Screening for mental health problems among patients with substance use disorders. A pilot project of the validation of a self-assessment instrument. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 52 (1), 22-27. ROLE: Senior Responsible Author. SUPERVISORY ROLE: Co- primary supervisor to trainees underlined.

Urbanoski, K., & Rush, B.R. (2006). Characteristics of people seeking treatment for problem gambling in Ontario: trends from 1998-2002. Journal of Gambling Issues, 16. Available: http://www.camh.net/egambling/issue16/index.html. ROLE: Senior Responsible Author. SUPERVISORY ROLE: Primary supervisor to trainees underlined.

Contact

CAMH, 33 Russell ST. 3^rd floor Tower, T304 Toronto, ON M5S 2S1 Phone: 416-535-8501 ext. 6625 fax: 416-260-4183 email: brian_rush@camh.net