I refer to the report “Addicted to alcohol from age 10, a programme helped him to kick the habit” (April 16).

As a social service professional and registered counsellor, I am encouraged and inspired by the Alcohol-Related Frequent Attenders (Arfa) programme at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.

While its primary concern was to reduce the frequency of emergency admissions to the hospital, it has achieved good outcomes in other areas of patients’ lives, including better emotional regulation, family reconciliation, and even stable housing and securing long-term employment.

As stated in the report, alcohol use in Singapore has been rising over the past decade, based on the National Population Health Survey in 2022. Furthermore, it is also internationally recognised that alcohol use is usually under-reported, meaning that the trends of alcohol drinking are probably higher.

The positive secondary benefits to society from the Arfa model should be studied to better understand how it works, so that similar programmes can be introduced to benefit all Singaporeans who suffer from this addiction.

Alcohol addiction is like any other disease, where upstream and early intervention promotes better outcomes. In the past, the World Health Organisation had said alcohol use was not harmful if done moderately and infrequently. However, research has now shown that any alcohol use can lead to unwanted health consequences.

While it will not be realistic to adopt a total-abstinence approach, we can reduce its harms to society by considering classifying alcohol use as a health hazard in the same bracket as smoking and vaping. 

Benjamin Yeo