The curriculum provides materials and information that can be used by trainers for lectures,
workshops, and courses for training health care providers to identify and treat college students
at risk for alcohol-related problems. There is enough material for a full-day program, although
parts of the curriculum can be delivered in a grand rounds session, a lecture, a seminar, or a
half-day workshop. Each module contains a set of 25-30 PowerPoint slides that can be used for a
didactic presentation. A trainer may elect to use some or all of the slides for a module,
depending on the audience, time available, and focus of the teaching session.
In addition to the slides, each module contains a review of the literature and clinical
protocols. Course participants should be asked to read this material prior to attending the
course. The written test portion of the modules includes essential information every clinician
should know about college drinking. Whenever possible, trainings should use demonstration
role-plays in front of the whole group to illustrate the clinical protocols on screening, brief
intervention, and motivational interviewing included in Modules 2, 3 and 4. If time allows, each
participant should practice the protocols, using either a paired role-play or by breaking the
participants into small groups of 4-8 participants.
There is also a brief intervention workbook contained in Appendix A which trainers may want to
use for the brief intervention module. This workbook is based on a brief intervention trial -
Project TrEAT (Fleming, 2002). It has been adapted for college students and for use in student
health centers. The workbook provides a structured method for clinicians to deliver brief
intervention and provides self-help exercises for students to use after they leave the clinician's
office.
There are also scripted role-plays in Appendix B which trainers may want to use. We have
included three student scenarios. The first is a young man being seen at the emergency department
of a local hospital for an injury that occurred when he fell off a second-floor porch. The second
is a young woman seen at the student health center for depression and Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD). The third scenario is a graduate student who is asking for help to control his
alcohol use.
Appendix C contains a short exercise on attitudes and personal beliefs about alcohol use among
college students. This exercise can create a stronger learning environment and facilitate
risk-taking by course participants during role-plays. It is important for clinicians to
recognize the value of treatment optimism. Clinicians need to treat students on the premise that
students will change their drinking habits with clinician interventions.