Alcohol abuse is associated with injury, chronic illness, absenteeism from work, and social costs to families and communities. The goal of this project is to translate motivational interventions successful in the primary care setting to the Emergency Department (ED) environment by implementing screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT) in order to reduce hazardous drinking among ED patients.
Specific Aims : To reduce levels of hazardous drinking among ED patients. To use publicity generated by National Alcohol Screening Day (NASD) to enhance adoption of SBIRT by ED personnel and (physicians, nurses and emergency medicine technicians (EMTs). This project is related to the 'Screening and Brief Intervention Model Curriculum' project (R25) which will be used to provide training resources for the NASD SBIRT project. In this project, we propose to screen a total of 500 ED patients, access several sites, during two consecutive two-week periods. All participants who screen positive will sign IRB approved consent forms and HIPAA release forms, be reimbursed for their participation, provide brief intake information and be assessed using a standardized form developed by the data coordinating center. In the first or control period, prior to NASD, ED patients will receive no intervention, only a printed handout of resources. In the second period, ED patients Nill receive both the printed handout and a brief motivational intervention to reduce hazardous or dependent drinking and referral to alcohol treatment resources. All patients will be followed and re-assessed at 3 and 6 months using a second centrally managed interactive telephone interview. Data analysis will be performed at the data coordinating center.
