Randomised control trial to evaluating the effectiveness of the Hello Sunday Morning "Daybreak" program in reducing alcohol use by adults

Daybreak is a program by Hello Sunday Morning for people looking to change their relationship with alcohol. It allows them to set a goal, reflect on their mood, and engage with peer support. Daybreak helps people to change their relationship with alcohol in four ways: 1) Weekly Check-in’s: Daybreak supports members in a self-reflection process to discover their inner drivers. Daybreak uses a set of self-report questionnaires that are designed to help people uncover their intrinsic motivators for change. 2) Peer support: Daybreak connects members to the Daybreak Community, a channel to immediate empathy, problem-solving, and accountability. It is a vibrant community with members that care for each other, help each other navigate tough times, and keep each other in check. 3) Behavioural Experiments: Daybreak encourages members to take “experiments”, and reflect on their learnings. Designed by the in house Clinical Team, these experiments are founded in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques, Motivational Interviewing and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy techniques. There are a range of "experiments" across five areas including Mindfulness, Connectedness, Resilience, Situational Strategies and Health. Mindfulness experiments help members learn how to be in-the-moment and recognize when a “drinking trigger” has been activated. The connectedness experiments help them to connect with others in a meaningful and healthy way without alcohol. The resilience experiments teach them how to bounce back from negative experiences and lapses. The situational experiments provide strategies for a range of common trigger situations. Lastly, the health experiments assist members in establishing good fitness routines, good eating and sleeping habits and general health strategies to help with regulating mood. 4) Health Coaches: Health Coaches are experienced specialists in behaviour change who have backgrounds in health, mental health, and psychology. Health coaches partner with members to help them set and reach goals for satisfying and healthy lives. The coaching service is conducted via real-time chat based messaging on a secure platform. Health Coaches again use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques, Motivational Interviewing and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy techniques, however are able to tailor this support to the member’s needs. Health Coaches are also able to troubleshoot with members when they have difficulty with particular experiments or strategies they are trying. In the intervention group, participants can request online chat based support. To do so they simply click on a button that says “chat to a coach”. They are then able to chat to their coach for as long as they wish during coaching hours (7am-7pm). The number of interactions is entirely variable and up to the participant. They may send one message and respond to the coaches reply later that day, the following day, etc or engage in an ongoing back and forth conversation. Each participant remains with the same coach over the course of the program. Should a coach be on leave or unwell they are given access to another coach to support them during that time if they would like it. Participants can access the coaching service throughout the 6 months of the trial. The health coaches meet the requirements of the Department of Health’s, low intensity mental health guidelines and are supervised by a clinical psychologist. Health coaches are trained mental health professionals with a minimum Certificate IV in a mental health or community services discipline Both intervention and control participants have access to self-guided materials and to the online forum. The intervention group also has access to the coaching service which is conducted via real-time chat based messaging on a secure platform. These are all one-to-one sessions, with no limit on the number of sessions. The duration is only limited by operation hours which are 7am-7pm AEST. Participants may still send messages outside of these hours, however will only receive a response from their coach within that time frame. Both intervention and control participants are asked to complete a weekly check-in, which will used to measure adherence. In addition, the system also records time spent on the Daybreak program, number of posts, comments, shares - typically these measure show greater engagement than the completion of weekly check-ins.