SBIRT - Screening Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment Program

Overview

With funding from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Office of Traffic Safety, ICSI worked with a core team in Duluth to integrate the delivery of Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) for first-time Driving-While-Intoxicated (DWI) clients in a streamlined, expedited court process. As part of furthering development and accessibility, this Website and Mobile App were designed for use by court appointed clinicians and mental health professionals, as well as the DWI clients themselves.

The primary screening tool currently being used in the Sixth District DWI Court’s SBIRT pilot program is the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), a 10-item screening tool developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a simple method of assessing alcohol consumption, drinking behaviors, and alcohol-related problems.

Both a clinician-administered version and a self-report version of the AUDIT are provided. Clients are encouraged to answer the AUDIT questions in terms of “standard drinks”. Scoring an 8 or more is indicative of harmful or hazardous alcohol abuse. Although frequently used in healthcare settings, AUDIT has been validated across genders and in a wide range of racial/ethnic groups and is well-suited for use in DWI Court settings.