Public Health Traffic Safety Institute for Preventing Impaired Driving was held on November 4, 2006 during the APHA Annual Meeting.  

Statement of Purpose and Institute Overview

The purpose of this installment of the Public Health Institute is to provide background information on the benefits of Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention (SBI) and to promote the use of this skill by public health professionals within the emergency department and various healthcare settings. In 2003, alcohol-related fatalities accounted for 40% of all motor vehicle fatalities in the United States. Impaired driving is often a symptom of a larger problem: alcohol misuse. Little attention has been focused on the groups of individuals who use alcohol, but who are not, or not yet, dependent and who could successfully reduce consumption through early intervention.

Reducing the number of alcohol-related fatalities will greatly depend on introducing intervention strategies such as Alcohol Screening and Brief Interventions, within the primary healthcare setting. It is an ideal element because impaired driving poses not only a public health concern, but SBI also presents an opportunity to intervene at a “teachable moment.” Problematic drinking is not the only issue of concern.

Alcohol problems manifest themselves in numerous ways that negatively affect the health and wellbeing of the public, including liver disease, injuries from fires, falls and drowning; and the specific focus of this project, traffic crashes. Since the specialist treatment system alone need not and cannot address all persons with the continuum of alcohol problems, new strategies are needed to expand intervention at the problem drinking level. By doing so, intervention is then geared toward meeting the problem where it stands on the continuum and does not focus exclusively on abuse and dependence.

SBI has been shown to be effective in identifying people with alcohol problems (both risky drinking and alcohol use disorders), motivating them to cut down their consumption or to seek treatment, and ultimately in reducing return visits to emergency rooms for treatment of injuries. Therefore, SBI could be applied and or disseminated more widely throughout the public health care system as an effective means for reducing the harms associated with over-consumption of alcohol and its attendant problems.

This PHI will focus on impaired driving associated with problem alcohol consumption as both acute and chronic behavior, which we most want to reduce. The objectives of this institute will be met through interactive learning, which will integrate didactic presentations with hands on learning experiences.

Objectives

At the completion of this Public Health Institute, participants will be able to:

• Define Screening and Brief Intervention and recognize its effectiveness.
• Recognize the strengths and limitations of the Quantity and frequency questions, self-report and laboratory screening tests, as well as different types of screening programs.
• Identify an effective method to screen for alcohol and drug abuse, including impaired driving.
• Conduct a screening interview using the AUDIT or ASSIST screening tests.
• Conduct a brief intervention.
• Select the most appropriate Screening and Brief Intervention tools for their intended population.
• Explore potential actions for public health practitioners to introduce SBI into routine healthcare.

Faculty and Topics

Thomas Babor, PhD

• Screening and Brief Intervention for Substance Abuse: Overview of Practical and Conceptual Issues
• Screening for Risky Alcohol and Drug Use: Clinical and Implementation Issues

Edward Bernstein, MD and Judith Bernstein, RNC, PhD

• SBIRT and Implications for Public Health Practice

Eric Helmuth, MA

• Using the Internet to screen for risky alcohol use

Jennifer Smith, MD

• Referral to Treatment: The Next Steps 

For more information contact mighty.fine@apha.org.