About the Alcohol and Tobacco Brief Interventions programme
This elearning programme focuses on two brief interventions that are recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for delivery in secondary care:
- Very Brief Advice on Smoking, and
- Alcohol Brief Advice.
Alcohol misuse and smoking are among the most significant risk factors contributing to ill health. In England, more than one in four people drink alcohol at levels that increase their risk of health harm, and about 16% of people smoke (Public Health England). Many of these people are frequent users of hospitals, which provides a great opportunity for healthcare professionals to talk to them about their drinking and smoking, and how their health could benefit from making changes.
The programme is intended to provide healthcare professionals with the minimum level of knowledge and skill needed to confidently and effectively identify risk and provide brief advice to patients who smoke or who are drinking at a level that could be harming them.
The programme supports objectives of the NHS Five Year Forward View, including the need for a “radical upgrade in prevention” and to be “incentivising and supporting healthier behaviour”. It also supports staff training to meet requirements of the Preventing Ill Health by Risky Behaviours – alcohol and tobacco CQUIN (2017/2019 Commissioning for Quality and Innovation).
More information
The elearning programme consists of four sessions:
- Introduction to treating and preventing ill health by risky behaviours – tobacco and alcohol
- Very Brief Advice on Smoking: ASK, ADVISE, ACT
- Alcohol Brief Advice: IDENTIFY and ADVISE or REFER
- Bringing it together for patients with multiple risk factors.
Each session will take approximately 15 minutes to complete and contains a short film, a recap of learning from the film, links to further information and resources, and a self-assessment to check learning. The films aim to make the case for why healthcare professionals in secondary care are well placed to deliver screening and brief advice interventions on smoking and alcohol, and to demonstrate how these can be easily integrated into routine practice, without taking up too much time.
A certificate is available for completion of the entire elearning programme. To obtain the certificate learners will need to pass the final self-assessment.
Meet the team
- Michelle Havill – Programme Manager: Alcohol, Drugs and Tobacco, Public Health England
- Jo Locker – Senior Tobacco Control Programme Manager, Public Health England
- Don Lavoie – Alcohol Programme Manager, Public Health England
- Qasim Chowdary – Tobacco Control Programme Manager, Public Health England
- Dr Andy McEwen – Executive Director, National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training
- Dr Sanjay Agrawal – Consultant in Respiratory and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust
- Jonathan Guy – Senior Project Manager, HEE elearning for healthcare
- Steve Hewitt – Learning Designer, HEE elearning for healthcare
- Karen Walker – Learning Designer, HEE elearning for healthcare
How to access
In order to access the Alcohol and Tobacco Brief Interventions programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.
To view the Alcohol and Tobacco Brief Interventions programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.
NHS healthcare staff in England
The Alcohol and Tobacco Brief Interventions programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this elearning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.
Further details are available here.
Not an NHS organisation?
If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.
To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.
Registering large numbers of users
If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Alcohol and Tobacco Brief Interventions programme, please contact elfh directly.
Organisations wishing to use their own LMS
For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.
More information
Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.