While brief interventions have largely focused on primary care settings, any healthcare professional with adequate training can conduct them. Practice nurses in particular may be more suited due to the time constraints of GPs and may be more cost effective.8
Using computers to deliver screening tools has also been touted as more viable than pen-and-paper questionnaires.8 The internet and mobile devices provide new possibilities for standalone or facilitated interventions,9 and would also offer benefits such as greater validity and anonymity.
When to undertake brief interventions is also an area of confusion. They can readily be performed in the following scenarios:10
- all new patients
- health assessments
- chronic disease assessments, for example hypertension, diabetes, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, abnormal liver function tests.
Repeating brief interventions whenever possible rather than focusing on a single session, has been argued to improve efficacy.6,11
Just as brief interventions originated in the emergency department, this should also be a logical place to deliver them. However, more recent research has shown that even with ‘booster sessions’ by telephone after an emergency department visit, brief interventions did not improve outcomes at 12 months.12