BACKGROUND: Adolescent substance use is an important public health problem in 
New Mexico and the United States. The New Mexico Department of Health 
school-based health centers (SBHCs) universally administer a validated screen, 
the CRAFFT (Car, Relax, Alone, Forget, Friends, Trouble), for adolescent 
substance use concerns; however, quality assurance efforts revealed that SBHC 
providers needed more information at the point of screening to initiate brief 
interventions for students with positive CRAFFT screens. The CHISPA (Cocaine, 
Heroin, IV drugs, Synthetic pot, Pot, Alcohol) was developed to gather specific 
information on recent substance use experience to guide brief interventions. 
This paper describes the development and initial reliability and validity of 
data obtained using the CHISPA instrument.
METHODS: In 2015, 99 high school-aged SBHC users in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 
completed the CRAFFT and CHISPA twice over 2 weeks using standard test-retest 
methods. Using the CHISPA, students reported for the prior 3 months substances 
used, frequency of use, and signs of addiction or acute danger (adverse events).
RESULTS: Retest reliability for the CRAFFT score was 0.82. CHISPA retest 
reliabilities were 0.75 for alcohol use; 0.91 for having used any substances; 
0.92 for number of substances used; 0.81 for frequency of substance use; and 
0.79 for number of adverse events. CRAFFT scores correlated with CHISPA measures 
of number of substances used at 0.62; with frequency of substance use at 0.58; 
and with number of adverse events at 0.64.
CONCLUSIONS: CHISPA measures show preliminary evidence of reliability and 
validity. SBHC providers and other providers in primary care settings who use 
the CRAFFT screen may benefit from using the CHISPA to define recent substance 
use experience to guide brief interventions for adolescents with substance use 
concerns. The CHISPA instrument is currently being tested in electronic form in 
selected SBHCs in the state of New Mexico.