Wisconsin’s Intoxicated Driver Program (IDP) Response to Adolescent Offenders

DFM Key Personnel

Georgiana Wilton, PhD - Principal Investigator
M. Raina Zwadzich, MSW - Project Coordinator

Funding

In October, 2006, Wisconsin entered into a five-year Cooperative Agreement with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) to administer the Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG).

Summary of Project

The proposed "Wisconsin's IDP Response to Adolescent Offenders" project represents collaboration between the UW Department of Family Medicine and the Department of Professional Development and Applied Studies (PDAS) to collect and analyze IDP data and assessor practices with the goal of reducing repeat operating while intoxicated (OWI) offenses by adolescents and young adults. The results of the needs assessment will inform current Intoxicated Driver Program - Approved Training (IDP-AT) practices, expand the toolbox of strategies designed to address OWI prevention, and make recommendations to the current work group addressing revisions of the Wisconsin Assessment of the Impaired Driver (WAID) tool.

Goals

The project's three main goals are to:

1). Provide a summary of current practice regarding the development, monitoring, and reporting of Driver Safety Plans (DSP) for Wisconsin's OWI adolescent clients.

2). Conduct a needs assessment regarding recommended changes to current IDP assessments, educational services, treatment services, and ancillary services (e.g. victim impact panel) for adolescent OWI clients.

3). Link current IDP practice to outcomes (i.e., what is working) using available county and Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) data to define appropriate and effective IDP assessment and referral processes, procedures, and tools.

The overarching goal of the proposed project is to reduce recidivism in adolescent OWI offenders and assist with addressing the priorities of Wisconsin's SPF SIG (alcohol-related motor vehicle injuries and fatalities among 16-34 year olds, underage drinking, and binge drinking among 18-34 year-olds).

Methods

The project seeks to collect and analyze data regarding the IDP's response to adolescent offenders by conducting focus groups. Focus groups will be comprised of certified IDP assessors, alcohol and drug treatment providers who serve adolescents, and instructors within Wisconsin's technical college system that provide "Group Dynamics" education curriculum to IDP clients. Data will be analyzed and complied into a report to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services about the IDP process and offer quality improvement recommendations supported with information from a literature review, DOT statistics and focus group data.