FRED YATES PRIZE WINNER 2012: Using brief electronic personalised feedback to reduce use of alcohol

Dr Bridgette Bewick, Associate Professor at University of Leeds, has a track record of high quality publications that have aided our understanding of the drinking behaviour of young people and of web-based interventions. She seeks to understand how personalised feedback interventions can help intervene early with individuals who are drinking problematically. Bridgette’s work has increased our understanding of drinking behaviour and she has led the development of an effective behaviour change electronic screening and brief intervention tool (www.unitcheck.co.uk). The development and evaluation of Unitcheck means universities now have a resource that enables their students to receive feedback that is associated with reductions in alcohol use. More recently Bridgette has used her expertise in generating effective personalised feedback, in collaboration with the Leeds Addiction Unit, to develop an online intervention for client-centred screening and self-referral by problem drinkers recently admitted to hospital (www. ChangeDrinking.com); the website structure and content are modelled on motivational dialogue. Bridgette’s substantial contribution to research and practice in the addictions field was recognised in 2012 by her being awarded the ‘SSA Fred Yates Prize Researcher of the Year’. Bridgette is a world expert on the use of the Social Norms Approach and has a particular interest in the ability for engagement with personalised feedback to be encouraged by embedding the social norms approach in prevention and early intervention message development and implementation strategy. Bridgette continues to develop ways for e-health solutions to support dissemination of tools that enable individuals to consider their own drinking behaviour and think through their potential to change.