1. Evaluating Intervention Strategies for Individuals with Operating While Intoxicated Offenses
Alissa Zawacki & Dr. Waraczynski
University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, Department of Psychology
Introduction
This poster reports on a collaborative effort with the Walworth county Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to assist with data-based evaluation of various intervention services.
DHHS needs to empirically validate its intervention strategies.
DHHS personnel have relatively little formal training in the area of data collection/analysis and carry a high case load.
Current consulting projects underway:
Operating While Intoxicated Internal Intervention Assessment
Operating While Intoxicated Intervention vs. Education Assessment
Assessing factors related to therapy appointment compliance
Assessing factors related to psychiatric care providers success
Education Overview
Future Direction
Projects:
Continue to work with DHHS to pursue new projects and use data analysis to empirically support their efforts. Current projects not reported here include:
OWI: Comparing intervention programs in both Walworth County and Jefferson County:
A survival analysis will be conducted to determine the influence of several factors known to affect re-offense risk on time-to-re-offense in Walworth and Jefferson Counties. This analysis will also allow us to assess the relative effectiveness of the two counties' intervention programs.
Therapy appointment compliance: Determining what factors affect whether clients keep appointments with their therapists.
Psychiatrist Evaluation: Assess whether different psychiatric care providers have different levels of success in improving quality of life for clients with different diagnoses.
Student Mentorship:
Students who complete Bio/Psych 416 will have the opportunity to help take on new and upcoming subprojects.
This experience bridges class work and real-world applicability
Students contribute to the university’s community
First OWI offense
Referred to Group Dynamics
22 hours of class-time
Focus on behavioral change
Second OWI offense
Referred to Multiple Offenders
33 hours of class-time
Two is Enough vs. Education
Re-offense records were observed for participants who completed either program from 2013-present (N=366)
Of the 183 participants in Two is Enough, 11 individuals re-offended (6.01%) and of the 183 participants in Education, 14 individuals re-offended (7.65%)
Results from a Kaplan Meier regression showed no significant difference in the time of survival/re-offense for the two groups.
Two is Enough Overview
The OWI intervention program being analyzed is the Two is Enough program.
Goals:
Assess individuals with first or second OWI offense
Use Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to reduce risky alcohol related behaviors
Prevent future re-offense
First or Second OWI offense
Referred to Two is Enough
Two Individual Sessions
Three Group Sessions
Summary
Evaluation of Two is Enough:
Present analysis suggest no significant difference between intake and discharge AUDIT scores for those in Two is Enough, however the mean discharge score is seen to be lower than intake
Two Is Enough vs Education:
Re-offense will be monitored for another year, to try to increase the number of observed re-offenses as the current number is too small to preform a valid survival analysis
Community-Based Learning Opportunity:
This project has created a growing partnership with local community service agencies and UW-Whitewater, one that offers students community-based learning opportunities
Evaluation of Two is Enough
Measurement Tool: Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test
The AUDIT is a 10 question scale used to determine an individual’s alcohol intake frequency, drinking patterns, and to look for the presence of binge drinking (Williams, 2014).
A dependent measures t-test showed no significant difference between individual’s intake and discharge scores , t(182) = 1.88, p = .062).
AUDIT Intake (M = 5.63, SD = 4.29)
AUDIT Discharge (M = 5.54, SD = 4.38)
Effect of Education Level on AUDIT:
An independent samples t-test showed a trend of higher education leading to a larger change in AUDIT scores
Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) Comparison
There was a significant difference in BAC on arrest, t(364) = 2.20, p = Those in Two is Enough (M=0.141, SD=.08) had a significantly higher BAC than those in Education (M=0.124, SD=.07).
The literature shows high BAC as a high risk factor of future re-offense (Impine, et. al, 2009). However, those going into Two is Enough have a higher BAC, yet the preliminary data suggest a lower proportion of re-offense for this group.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Undergraduate Research Program for funding this project. We would like to thank our collaborators in the Department of Health and Human Services, Nicole Heinrich, Carlo Nevicosi, and Cathy Griffith for working with us to see our project through. Also, we would like to give a special thanks to Dr. David Thompson for initializing the partnership between DHHS and UW-Whitewater; without his vision for collaborative learning and research, none of this would have been possible.
Williams, N. (2014). The AUDIT questionnaire. Occupational Medicine, 64, 308.
Impinen, A., Rahkonen, O., Karjalainen, K., Lintonen, T., Lillsunde, P., & Ostamo, A. (2009). Substance use as a predictor of driving under the influence (DUI) rearrests. A 15-year retrospective study. Traffic Injury Prevention, 10,