HubCAPP Poster presentation

Manager of the HubCAPP website, Sarah Ward, presented a Poster at the Inebria Conference 7-8 October 2009 in Newcastle. Inebria is the International Network on Brief Interventions for Alcohol and is an International Conference.

The poster was entitled ‘Real Life Brief Interventions: examples from across England’ and featured 25 project examples from HubCAPP.  It gives a short abstract on each project as well as key learning from these.

HubCAPP is a unique and valuable vehicle to share practice across England, it enables comparisons to be made and learning to be shared. From the range of Identification and Brief Advice (IBA) work taking place it is clear that some areas are further progressed and have been doing it for longer than others. However similar things have been learnt across the country including:

  • That an Alcohol Nurse Specialist can lead to: early discharge of patients, resulting in savings of significant bed days per year and reduced re-attendance by patients to hospital and GPs
  • GP and medical staff perceptions and attitudes may need to be challenged and this can take some time. This can centre on their own knowledge and comfort in asking patients about their alcohol consumption. However undertaking IBA is of benefit for both patient and practitioner.
  • There are often staffing changes, with new Doctor rotations. In this environment IBA work will take longer to embed into practice and training is continuous. It is therefore necessary to have a funding commitment for at least two or three years before commissioning these services.
  • Demand from referrers will be high, appropriate levels of staffing and support are needed for the work to be successful.
  • Allowing staff to attend the training and allocating staff time to do the work is essential
  • Data reporting needs to be made clear and simple from the start, personal details should be kept to a minimum and the importance of answering the questions truthfully should be stressed.
  • Learning from others already successfully running IBA should be encouraged
  • There are significant impacts to the health and wellbeing of the people given these services


 Real Life Brief Interventions: examples from across England (312KB)
Author: Sarah Ward
Policy and Programmes Manager, HubCAPP Manager, Alcohol Concern
Presented at Inebria Conference 7-8 October 2009