Extending alcohol brief advice into non-clinical community settings: a qualitative study of experiences and perceptions of delivery staff

At a population level, the majority of alcohol-related harm is attributable to drinkers whose consumption exceeds recommended drinking levels, rather than those with severe alcohol dependency. Identification and Brief Advice (IBA) interventions offer a cost-effective approach for reducing this harm. Traditionally, IBA interventions have been delivered in healthcare settings and therefore contextual influences on their use in non-clinical settings are not well understood.

Qualitative face-to-face and telephone interviews with staff responsible for delivering a pilot IBA intervention across community settings in the UK. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify key issues and the constant comparison method was employed to compare barriers and facilitators to implementation across and within settings.

A number of facilitators and barriers to delivery and implementation was identified across settings. These included familiarity with the customer base, working within public spaces, and assimilation of the intervention within existing role boundaries. Despite underlying concerns relating to the sensitive nature of the topic, most delivery staff felt their respective settings were appropriate for the delivery of the intervention and had proactively engaged members of the public with varying levels of risky drinking and readiness for behaviour change. Perceptions of actual or potential intervention success were conceptualised in relation to existing day-to-day role boundaries and responsibilities and the contexts in which they took place.

Findings support the potential value of multi-setting community approaches to facilitate more inclusive engagement with IBA. By comparing experiences and views from staff responsible for delivering the intervention across different community settings, our findings provide insight into how intervention acceptability and success are framed across settings, and how the intervention is assimilated within everyday practice and role boundaries. This study also highlights key areas to be addressed when implementing IBAs in non-clinical community settings by staff with diverse levels of health-related knowledge, skills and support needs. Although essential, the need for adaptable training and delivery approaches across different setting types is likely to result in methodological challenges that need to be addressed when evaluating future interventions and setting-specific influences on behaviour change and health outcomes.