The accident and emergency alcohol project aims to increase screening and treatment for people who drink above low harm levels and help them to access support services.
Themes
- Behaviour change
- Reducing alcohol use
- Preventing hospital use
Locality
Scarborough Hospital - people from all areas accessing A&E services.
Aims
The accident and emergency alcohol project aims to increase screening and treatment for people who drink above low harm levels, help them to access support services and reduce hospital admissions and re-admissions associated with alcohol use.
The service offers structured brief interventions, harm reduction advice, and an opportunity to refer dependent drinkers into community treatment services.
Details
Together the Cambridge Centre and Scarborough General Hospital are working in partnership to offer alcohol advice and brief interventions to individuals admitted to the A&E department. The interventions are aimed at helping people make more informed decisions about how much alcohol they drink and reducing the harm of alcohol on themselves and others.
The A&E alcohol worker provides training for those working within A&E on using the Scarborough alcohol test, a screening tool that is used to identify those drinking at harmful levels. Those identified are then offered an alcohol information pack and an appointment for follow up support at the hospital with the alcohol worker.
The A&E alcohol worker aims to see patients referred by A&E staff within 24-hours of accessing the A&E department and offers a programme of up to three sessions. This programme consists of interventions and brief advice including assessment, education, harm reduction and motivational work. The alcohol worker is based within the A&E department and can see patients for each of the three sessions on-site, on a hospital ward, at the Cambridge Centre offices in Scarborough, Whitby or Ryedale or in the community. People who need further help are advised about treatment options that are available within the community and referrals into these services are made.
As part of the work being undertaken we need to understand if the brief interventions are having an impact on reducing alcohol related crime and anti-social behaviour.
Therefore work is underway to link the cohort of individuals that have received the brief intervention with crime data from North Yorkshire Police
Details of the individuals worked with will be passed to the community safety partnership where consent has been given by the individual. The community safety partnership will analyse the police crime data to see if any are known to the criminal justice system for any alcohol related offences and if yes has the brief intervention had any impact on their offending behaviour within a 12 month period since receiving the intervention.
How will this case study improve health and reduce health inequalities?
The selection of findings from the project show:
- During the first 18 months of the project (September 2011 - March 2013) the number of people screened was 647; and the number identified as harmful drinkers was 488 (Scarborough Alcohol Test positive); and
- In the first 12 months of the service, at the end of treatment the average number of units consumed per day decreased by 19.4 units per person per day.
In order to explore outcomes relating to the reduction in alcohol related hospital admissions and the reduction in alcohol related repeat presentations to Scarborough A&E a cohort of 65 patients have been identified and are being tracked at six month intervals from three years prior to service. Early data suggests:
- A&E attendances in this cohort have been reduced by 39 per cent and 55 per cent in the two six-month periods since they received an intervention; and
- The number of inpatient bed days in this cohort have been reduced by 64 per cent and 59 per cent in the two six-month periods since they received an intervention.
Contact details
Georgina Wilkinson, health improvement manager
North Yorkshire County Council
Tel: 01609 535857
Email: georgina.wilkinson@northyorks.gov.uk
Paddy Chandler, deputy chief executive
The Cambridge Centre
Tel: 01723 367475
Email: paddy.chandler@cambridgecentre.org
