Note: This report was funded and/or written by our predecessor organisation, the Alcohol Education Research Council (AERC).
12 September 2004
Researchers:
Professor Carl May, Dr Eileen Kaner and Dr Tim Rapley from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Key findings
Irrespective of their knowledge of alcohol brief interventions, the vast majority of the GPs were able to describe various elements (though not necessarily the same) of brief interventions as a routine and normalized component of their work, but the GPs’ detection of alcohol-related problems was variable.
The GPs believe that this work is important, but they feel due to their practical experience that until patients are willing to accept that their alcohol consumption is problematic they can achieve very little. They work to introduce alcohol as a potential problem, re-introduce the topic in future consultations, and then have to wait until the patient decides to change their behaviour.
GPs’ own consumption and their perceptions about the problems experienced by, or the receptiveness of, different groups of patients can result in variable engagement with alcohol issues. Patients’ social class, sex and age can influence the GPs’ diagnosis and intervention work. When working with specific groups of patients, like the elderly or middle class professionals, some GPs would forget to ask about alcohol or be surprised that a patient was drinking excessively.
That a mosaic of clinical, organisational, practical and social factors cause GPs to ask questions like ‘what needs to be done?’, ‘what can be done?’, ‘how can it be done, and when?’ in relation to each specific patient over multiple consultations.
Implications
The development of future educational interventions for clinicians in primary care should be launched not solely on the basis of education, skills-building or dissemination of the current evidence-base but rather on the basis of enabling GPs to recognise the array of skills they already have and currently use when working with alcohol and alcohol related problems.
Educational interventions need to take account of the very practical problems and dilemmas that GPs face on a day-to-day basis and seek to explore the range of solutions that the participants currently employ. They should seek to empower GPs to recognise and enhance their current good practice. Above all, such sessions should seek to generate a range of very practical tips, strategies and advice and should supply them with a checklist of potential courses of action to act as sources of support and reminders for their future practice.
