Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115937

Chris Dunn, PhD, DASA, University of Washington, 325 9th Ave, Box 359911, Seattle, WA 98104-2499, 206-251-4890, cdunn@u.washington.edu

A substantial body of efficacy studies indicates that brief interventions (counseling) can reduce health-damaging behaviors throughout numerous populations when delivered by diverse practitioners under many different conditions. The hope is that dissemination efforts will now successfully translate these evidence-based counseling methods into real-world programs that will improve health care outcomes for at-risk bands of entire populations. This presentation consists of three sections. The first will provide an overview of brief intervention efficacy literature, focusing on motivational interviewing for substance abuse, smoking, diet/exercise, and HIV risk reduction. The second section will describe the highly variable operational aspects of five different screening and brief intervention programs developed in trauma centers to address alcohol abuse. These operational features that have filtered down to site-level practice will be compared to those at the University of Washington's Harborview Medical Center, an early innovator in such programs. Finally, these site-level observations will be linked to dissemination theory.

Learning Objectives:

• become familiar with the literature on brief interventions using motivational interviewing,
• understand how dissemination theory explains the remarkable variability in brief intervention programs, and
• learn basic principles for tailoring a screening and brief intervention program to a given site’s unique needs.

Keywords: Alcohol, Intervention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation