JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Given that youth alcohol use is more common in rural communities, such communities can play a key role in preventing alcohol use in adolescents. Guidelines recommend primary care providers incorporate screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) into routine care.

Objective:

Increase adolescent alcohol and drug screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment among primary care providers and school nurses.

Methods:

To build capacity to address underage drinking and opioid use among youth ages 9 to 20, this project uses telehealth, specifically Project ECHO®, to train primary care providers and school nurses to intervene on substance use with SBIRT. Our project will engage 120 primary care providers and allied health professionals, and 20 school nurses to participate in SBIRT training. Community-based providers will participate in weekly virtual ECHO sessions with a multi-disciplinary team from Penn State College of Medicine who will provide SBIRT training and facilitate case discussions by participants.

Results:

To date, we have launched one SBIRT ECHO with school personnel, enrolling 34 participants. ECHO participants are from both rural (n=17) and urban (n=17) counties and include school nurses (n=15), school counselors (n=8), teachers (n=5), administrators (n=3), and social workers (n=3). Before the study began, only 15.5% of schools were screening for alcohol use.

Conclusions:

This project teaches SBIRT for use in primary care clinics and schools to prevent the onset and reduce the progression of substance use disorders (SUD), reduce SUD-related problems, and strengthen communities’ prevention capacity. Ours is an innovative model to improve rural adolescent health by reducing alcohol and opioid related harms.