National Alcohol Screening Day to raise awareness and identify those at risk

By Mark Rosa

On Wednesday, Utah State University’s Counseling and Psychological Services and Student Health and Wellness Center hosted a National Alcohol Screening Day event to spread awareness about alcoholism and assess the student, faculty and staff’s risk of alcohol dependency.

Charles Bentley, a psychologist at USU CAPS said the event centered around a survey based on the Alcohol Disorders Identification Test which is scored to determine the individual’s level of dependence on alcohol and risk of alcohol dependency.

“With alcohol the two things that can actually get people in trouble are chronic use and binge drinking,” Bentley said. “This screen asks questions about the frequency and amount you drink, and it also asks some basic questions to determine your risk factors.”

Bentley said that universities across the country participate in national alcohol screening day in an attempt to raise awareness of the risks of alcohol on a national scale.

Although the event’s attendance was low, Ryan Barfuss, the substance abuse prevention specialist at USU said that the attendance of the event was representative of the drinking population of USU, under 20 percent. Barfuss said that despite the sparse attendance, what they were doing was important.

“Every year we get five or six people that come in that need help with their drinking,” Barfuss said. “The goal today is to screen that one person or multiple people who need help but also to raise awareness.”