Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Medicine - Public Health, grade: 1, Egerton University, language: English, abstract: Substance abuse and co-occurring disorders are seemingly becoming an enormous challenge to health care systems. Substance abuse has become popular, especially among the young people even though its prevalence appears to be a cross-sectional health issue with drug addiction occurring across all ages and gender. On the other hand, mental illnesses are increasing at an alarming rate among the global population; thus, unprecedented burden to healthcare systems and professionals. Ordinarily, the occurrence of a mental health issue such as depression and a substance abuse problem is what is commonly referred to as dual diagnosis or a co-occurring disorder. From a nursing perspective, dual diagnosis does not appear to be a simple task because it deals with handling two problems concurrently: the mental health problem and the substance abuse issue.