BASICS: Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students

The Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) consists of two fifty-minute individual sessions. Students that are assigned to the BASICS program typically have more moderate alcohol sanction than those assigned to ASTP.

In the first session, the student and counselor will discuss the student's sanction and typical drinking patterns. The goal of this session is to establish what the student's normal alcohol and other drug (AOD) use is and how that usage compares to their peers. The student and counselor may also discuss the student’s attitude towards drinking and his or her desire to change his/her drinking behavior. The student is asked to keep track of their drinking over the next week to discuss in the second session.

In the second session, the student and counselor will discuss the previous week's assignment of keeping track of their drinking and how that impacted their decision-making. The counselor and student will go through an electronic survey the student took in the first session and learn more about drinking norms, alcohol-related problems, beliefs about the effects of alcohol and protective factors. The student is given information about how to estimate blood-alcohol content, the financial cost of consuming alcohol and weight and health issues related to alcohol to make their own decisions about their alcohol consumption. The goal of the sessions is to help the student put their drinking habits into context and make more informed decisions in the future.

The counselors for BASICS are usually students from the counselor education programs of William & Mary. Counselors are trained to use motivational interviewing techniques.