Services Database Provision of Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention Support and Guidance

Using defined criteria, patients ‘walking in’ to a participating Dudley pharmacy will be offered screening using the AUDIT alcohol assessment tool.
The defined criteria for screening is any patient aged 16 and above who is a resident within Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council that:

• the pharmacist/trained staff member identifies as needing advice/support around alcohol use; or
• has not completed AUDIT (Alcohol Questionnaire) in the last 12 months.

The pharmacist/trained staff member will undertake the AUDIT with the patient. If the score determines that the patient scores 7 or below (low risk drinker), then the patient will be provided with a leaflet and inform that their drinking is currently within safe limits.
If the score determines that the patient scores 8 to 15 (includes hazardous drinking category), a brief intervention will be carried out which must consist of an explanation of:

• daily benchmarks;
• what a unit of alcohol is;
• category of drinkers; and
• the content of the information leaflet.

Those patients having scored 8-15 (hazardous drinking category), should be contacted using three follow up questions after four weeks. Telephone follow ups are acceptable.
If a patient scores 16 or more (which moves towards either a harmful or dependent drinking category) then appropriate referrals should be made to the alcohol specialist services, CRI (Crime Reduction Initiative).

All staff employed by the pharmacy who will be providing the service must have completed Alcohol Identification and Brief Advice training which includes:

• basic alcohol awareness;
• information on the use of the assessment tool AUDIT;
• understanding the processes to refer to specialist services;
• skills to be competent to deliver brief interventions; and
• methods of monitoring targets and outcomes.