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Alcohol Screening & Brief Interventions in a Policing Context. A Feasibility Study

Alcohol Screening & Brief Interventions in a Policing Context. A Feasibility Study. Nicola Brown Dorothy Newbury-Birch Eileen Kaner. Background. 23% of the adult population, or 7.1 million people, in England drink alcohol in a hazardous or harmful way 60-65% prevalence in CJS settings

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Alcohol Screening & Brief Interventions in a Policing Context. A Feasibility Study

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  1. Alcohol Screening & Brief Interventions in a Policing Context. A Feasibility Study Nicola Brown Dorothy Newbury-Birch Eileen Kaner

  2. Background • 23% of the adult population, or 7.1 million people, in England drink alcohol in a hazardous or harmful way • 60-65% prevalence in CJS settings • Total cost of alcohol-related crime in England & Wales is £7.3 billion

  3. Alcohol and Crime • 40% of Binge Drinkers admitted committing a crime in past 12 months (Budd 2003) • Binge drinkers 5 times more likely to be involved in a fight in previous 12 months (Richardson and Budd 2003) • Victim, offender or both had been drinking in previous 4 hours in 90% of assaults (Finney 2004) • Alcohol is consumed before 73% of domestic violence cases (Gilchrist 2003) • Up to 25% of current Police work is associated with alcohol related incidents (Palk 2007)

  4. Aim • To explore the feasibility of providing alcohol SBI in the Police setting • To survey the number of detainees that can be screened for alcohol use within a given time frame in a Police station • To determine the number & proportion of hazardous/ harmful drinkers that are willing to engage in BA • To establish the training needs of Detention Officers for conducting alcohol SBI

  5. Design • £10K funding • £5K South Tyneside DAAT • £5K South Tyneside PCT • 3 months data collection • May to July 2009

  6. Process • South Shields Police Station • Carried out by 10 detention officers • During finger printing just prior to release • Inclusion criteria • Arrested for a public order offence or any assault offence (excluding attempted murder or murder) • Aged 18 or over • Alert and orientated • Able to speak, read and write English sufficiently well to comprehend the intervention

  7. Data Collection • Participants characteristics • Age, gender, occupation, ethnicity • Arrest Details • Reason for arrest, time, day • Audit Score - 10 questions • BA delivery & explanation if not

  8. Findings 229 participants involved From a possible 634 target arrests (36%) • 80% Male • 92% White British • 52% Unemployed • 63% data collected on weekends

  9. Arrest Classifications • Expanded as some DO’s included people outside of the remit • Assault – 50% • Public Order – 40% • Other – Drug possession, sexual offences, child neglect, arson etc – 10%

  10. For the 172 participants who completed a questionnaire 132 (75%) had an AUD

  11. 50% 14% 36%

  12. AUDIT Question 9. Have you or somebody else been injured as a result of your drinking? • No – 86 (49%) • Yes, but not in the last 6 months – 15 (9%) • Yes during the last 6 months – 71 (40%) • Missing – 4 (2%)

  13. Further analysis • Possibilities to analyse each AUDIT questions and cross-match for certain demographic characteristics • Qualitative interviews with the Detention Officers involved

  14. Limitations • One North East Police Station • 3 month data collection • Representative sample

  15. Future Work • Total arrest for 3 months was >2000 • Exploring the DO views may give an insight into; • acceptability & feasibility • possible new ways of working • future research possibilities

  16. Conclusions • 229 of 634 (36%) of all target arrests were screened for alcohol consumption • 176 of 634 (28%) completed the AUDIT • 126 of the 133 (95%) who screened positive were willing to engage in BA

  17. Thank you • Any questions?

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