Screening and Brief Advice (SBI) Project to reduce heavy drinking in Alexandra, South Africa
“Heavy alcohol use and the resultant alcohol related harm is the cause of many challenges in our society, including road traffic accidents, trauma related injuries seen in hospitals, gender- based violence and many others. HIVSA’s work aims to provide holistic packages of services and interventions to ultimately contribute to an HIV-free society – HIVSA CEO, Ms Yashmita Naidoo.
In collaboration with the AB INBEV Foundation in South Africa, HIVSA has completed the implementation of a pilot project aimed at reducing alcohol harm through delivering a simple screening tool that measures the alcohol consumption of patients (audit-c tool) and provides simple advice to patients based on their self-reported drinking levels.
The SBI project was implemented in Alexandra, South Africa, in partnership with community based implementing partners, utilising 3 modalities of implementation;
- Integrating Screening for alcohol consumption through HIV Counselling and Testing Services at community level and referring community members whose alcohol consumption exceeded the recommended daily/weekly consumption to the Riverpark clinic and Lifeline for additional psychosocial support services;
- Screening community members using the audit-c tool through door to door home visits and referring community members whose alcohol consumption exceeded the recommended daily/weekly consumption to the Riverpark clinic for additional psychosocial support services;
- Providing screening services at EastBank and Riverpark clinics through 2 peer educators placed at each clinic.
66 674 people screened
701 Referred for alcohol related psychosocial support (31
successful)
Lessons learnt
- Although 66, 674 people were screened for alcohol drinking, only 0.4% of all people referred for alcohol related psychosocial support were successfully linked to supportive services.
- The reluctance and refusal by community members to be referred for supportive services, illustrates that many are not seeing the challenges brought about by heavy alcohol consumption in our communities.