Implementation of the QuikFix College Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD)-related Harm Minimisation Project among residential college students.

There are two groups in this study a) intervention group – who receive the Full QuikFix College Program (i.e., workshop + QuikFix), and b) the comparison group – who receive the workshop only. Pre-intervention Baseline education - QuikFix Alcohol and other Drug (AOD) Harm Reduction Workshop: An interactive, 2-hour workshop will be delivered to all first year students at participating UQ colleges during Orientation-Week, to increase their knowledge of and intention to use harm minimisation strategies and reduce their risk of risky AOD use and related harm. A quiz show trivia format will be used, in which the first year cohort at each college will be split into teams (based on existing college structures). The workshop will be facilitated by trained third-year student peer leaders from each college, with the support of the research team. The trivia content was co-developed with college peer leaders using focus groups/participatory design workshops, and provided feedback in an ongoing manner. The workshop includes information about: how alcohol and other drugs is likely to affect individuals physically, mentally, socially and emotionally; how to drink alcohol but not get too drunk; and harm minimisation strategies for safer alcohol and other drug use to reduce risk of harm. Participants are not provided with any additional hardcopy materials. The workshop will be scheduled into the Colleges' O-Week formal orientation, which all students are encouraged to attend. Attendance numbers will be monitored using the Colleges' enrolment lists. These numbers will then be compared with records of baseline survey completion (which includes consent to workshop participation), which are done just prior to workshop delivery. All participants who complete a baseline survey are therefore present for engagement in workshop delivery. Intervention - QuikFix Brief AOD Telehealth Intervention: An additional survey will be conducted at 4-weeks with the students in the Intervention College for the expressed purposed of identifying students who are nominated as socially influential by their peers. The rationale for waiting until 4-weeks post-baseline to identify these socially influential students, is to ensure that there has been sufficient time for social bonds to have been established and more accurate identification of students who are considered central within the social network. This approach is based on recommendations made in previous research (Heckathorn et al., 2012; Paluck & Shepherd, 2012). In addition, only those socially influential students who also reported risky drinking in the baseline online survey (completed prior to the workshop) are offered the chance to participate in the QuikFix brief intervention. This is because it is expected that by targeting these centrally positioned socially influential students to receive the QuikFix intervention directly, the remainder of the network (i.e., intervention group) will indirectly experience the effect of the QuikFix intervention via the targeted central players. Students identified as risky drinkers and centrally positioned in the college social network that provide additional consent will receive the QuikFix brief intervention. All peer leaders at the intervention college will also be offered the QuikFix brief intervention. The two-session QuikFix intervention is delivered via phone over a maximum of 4 weeks by AOD workers, who have attended a 2-day training workshop, which has previously been delivered by Professor Hides to over 50 mental health, AOD and primary care workers. QuikFix incorporates assessment feedback (AF), motivational interviewing (MI) and personality targeted coping skills training. QuikFix includes comprehensive materials (e.g., fact and harm minimisation sheets) that can be used by all research therapists. These materials have been purpose-built for the QuikFix intervention. In Session 1 (expected completion time 20 - 30 minutes), personalised AF on the student’s AOD use and related consequences, and information on the physical, psychological and social effects of alcohol is provided. MI is then used to build readiness and commitment to make a change and develop goals for their alcohol use. Participants are provided with information on alcohol harm minimisation strategies and are encouraged to develop a plan for how they can use these strategies in future alcohol use situations to reduce their risk of harm. These harm minimisation strategies are purpose-built for the QuikFix intervention and are initially provided verbally to the participants during the session. The strategies are tailored to suit the particular substance of concern for the participant. At the end of Session 1 participants are asked if they would also like to have a soft copy of these individually tailored purpose-built strategies emailed to them for future reference. In Session 2 (expected completion time 20 - 30 minutes), AF on the students dominant personality style and how this may affect their AOD use is provided. They then receive personality-specific training in two cognitive behavioural coping skills. For example, a participant with a 'Positive Urgency' style of coping personality might be provided with 'Urge Surfing' skills; on the other hand, a participant with an 'Impulsivity' style of coping personality might be provided with a 'Stop-Think-Do' skills technique. Session 2 concludes with the young person developing an implementation intention for future AOD-related situations, which incorporates their personality-specific coping skills. As with Session 1, upon completion of Session 2, participants are asked if they would like a soft-copy of any of the purpose-built individually tailored coping skills emailed to them for future reference. All telephone treatment sessions are audio-recorded and a random 20% will be independently rated for treatment fidelity purposes.