Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention Overview
Impaired driving is a serious problem in the United States, killing thousands every year. Reductions in alcohol related traffic deaths occurred in the 1980's and early 90's, but progress has stalled since then. In fact, the numbers are beginning to rise. In an effort to once again move the numbers in the right direction, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has identified three priority initiatives to help reduce driving while impaired (DWI) and to focus greater attention on the impaired driving problem. Implementation of these initiatives will support and involve active participation of law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, and medical and health care professionals. These three priority initiatives are: (1) high visibility enforcement; (2) support for prosecutors and DWI courts; and (3) alcohol screening and brief intervention.
NHTSA supports wide-spread alcohol screening in the following ways:
Medical Settings
NHTSA has partnered with the American College of Emergency Physicians , the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma , the American Academy of Family Physicians and the National Hispanic Medical Association to create materials which promote alcohol screening implementation. In addition, NHTSA has compiled a list of training resources for medical personnel interested in learning how to conduct alcohol screenings.
Community Alcohol Screening
Through the promotion of www.alcoholscreening.org and our work with the American Public Health Association , we encourage individuals to self-screen and community-based organizations to spread the word that alcohol screening is quick, easy and acceptable. Using the Alcohol Screening Planner , is a great way to bring www.alcoholscreening.org to your community. Increased understanding of low risk drinking limits www.niaaa.nih.gov and increasing the discussions about alcohol use and misuse are two goals for the community based work.
Federal Partnerships
NHTSA collaborates with the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration and the National Institute of Drug Abuse on a variety of projects which promote the effective use of screening and brief intervention.