Risk Management

Most colleges and universities in the U.S. have prevention programs that address the issues of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use and abuse. Some, like UT Austin, invest substantial time and effort into these programs.

The terms risk management and harm reduction describe the foundation of most modern college prevention programs, including those of UT Austin, University Health Services (UHS).

Risk Management & Harm Reduction Basics

Alcohol/drug risk management is based on a few simple, basic assumptions that may appear obvious at first glance but serve as the foundation for most college risk management programs:

Heavy drinking & other drug use results in negative consequences.
Moderate drinking & other drug use results in fewer negative consequences.
Light drinking & other drug use results in few negative consequences.
Abstinence from alcohol & other drugs results in no negative consequences.
By raising the level of responsible decision-making, the risk associated with all drinking & other drug use will decline.

Consider the following Consumption-Problems continuum:

Alcohol/Drug-Related Problems

The goal of risk management prevention programs is not to convince students not to drink, but rather to manage their alcohol consumption to reduce the likelihood of harm by moving from right to left along the continuum.

Strategies You Can Use

As an individual, there are many simple strategies that you can put into place to reduce the risk and potential harm associated with drinking. Reasearch shows that the more strategies a person uses, the less likely he/she will experience negitive consequences (like hangovers, regret, memory loss, etc.). For example, you can:

Choose safe and familiar settings in which to drink
Drink with people you know and trust
Set a limit and stick to it
Count your drinks
Learn how to say, "No thanks" and "No more"
Avoid all drinking games, always
Eat something before and while you drink
Alternate alcoholic with non-alcoholic drinks
Avoid drinking on top of medications
Mix your own drinks or know exactly what's in them
Have a plan to get home safely (E-Bus & DDP)
Pace drinks to one per hour

A Risk Management/Harm Reduction Approach to Substance Abuse Prevention

Statistics vary from survey to survey and from year to year, but typical reports indicate that about 70% or more of senior high school students and 80% or more of college students have consumed alcohol within the past year, and that around 40%-50% of college students engage in binge drinking.

Prevention experts estimate that over 30% of college drinkers can be labeled alcohol abusers using diagnostic criteria utilized by medical doctors and licensed counselors. Survey data tells us that about 41,500 (83%) UT students drink. If estimates of alcohol abuse among college students are accurate, that means that during any give long semester, we have about 12,500 students abusing alcohol.

Add to those figures the alarming number of alcohol poisoning cases that occur on college campuses, and you wind up with a lot of parents, school administrators, social science researchers, and students themselves feeling worried and demanding that colleges somehow "prevent" the abuse of alcohol and other drugs on their campuses.

To prevent literally means to keep something from happening. Prevention programs deliver education and interventions that encourage individuals and groups of individuals to avoid and/or change behavior that may precipitate the onset of negative outcomes and problems.

College-based alcohol & drug prevention programs, at least the really good ones, apply multiple strategies - activities, programs, and services - that attempt to accomplish the following:

Educate students about alcohol and drugs in an effort to encourage responsible decisions around their use
Intervene on students who have experienced negative consequences around alcohol and drugs so as to reduce the harm and manage the risks associated with their use
Support students who are in recovery from substance abuse and addiction
Promote constructive lifestyles and norms that discourage alcohol & drug abuse
Develop social and physical environments that facilitate alcohol and drug abuse-free lifestyles

Alcohol/Drug Prevention Strategies

Alcohol/drug prevention strategies are generally divided into three categories, depending on the target audience.

Primary, Universal, or Population-Based Prevention
Activities that target the general public or an entire population cohort that has not been identified on the basis of individual risk
Secondary, or Selective Prevention
Activities that target individuals or subgroups of the population whose risk has been identified as higher than average
Tertiary, or Indicated Prevention
Activities that target individuals who have been identified as high risk through behavior that suggests signs or symptoms of alcohol or drug abuse or addiction

Strategies for Alcohol/Drug Prevention

Note that the activities that comprise these strategies are not discreet; they overlap between categories.

Other Approaches to Alcohol/drug Prevention

Social Norms/Social Norms Marketing

This primary prevention strategy is based on the theory that individuals use alcohol and other drugs in ways that are consistent with their perceptions of environmental norms.

The fundamental assumption of this strategy is that students modify their behavior to "fit in" with the normative expectations of their peers. Research consistently has shown that despite the fact that most students drink responsibly or not at all, they believe that other students drink considerably more than they actually do. And if students are aware that most students really do drink responsibly, it may remove perceived peer pressure to do the same.

Environmental Strategies

Environmental strategies are based on the theory that students do not make decisions about their use of alcohol entirely on their own and that they are influenced by a variety of sources.

These sources include, for example, messages given or implied by the campus community about the role of alcohol and drugs on campus, by policies and procedures set by the university, and by the surrounding community's policies affecting the availability of alcohol and enforcement of alcohol/drug laws.

Environmental strategies that have been shown to work: