About The Drink-less Program

Drink-less was developed at the University of Sydney in 1993 for use in primary health care settings. The content was based on validated techniques for early detection and treatment of hazardous and harmful alcohol use developed by World Health Organisation (WHO) affiliated investigators. It was modified by Gomel et al (1994) for Australian use and then updated in 2003 with new colours and graphics. Drink-less is a complete package for health practitioners to use in detection and treatment of risky drinking.

The intervention materials are based on the five-minute intervention shown to be effective in the multicentre WHO collaborative trial of brief interventions (Saunders et al 1993; WHO Study Group 1996).

The Drink-less program resources can be downloaded for free.

In NSW this package is being used by GPs and specialists in providing brief intervention to drink drivers as part of the Alcohol Interlock Program. Production of the materials and this web site were supported by the Roads and Traffic Authority, NSW (now known as Transport for NSW).

The current research team:

Professor Kate Conigrave
FAFPHM FAChAM PhD, Senior Staff Specialist, Drug Health Services, Sydney Local Health District (SLHD)

Professor Paul Haber
FRACP FAChAM MD, Clinical Director, Drug Health Services, SLHD

Dr Elizabeth Proude
Cert Teach MA PhD, Research Fellow, University of Sydney

Professor John Saunders
FRCP MD FRACP FAFPHM, Professor and Consultant Physician in Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine, Sydney