The University of Cape Town (UCT) is piloting a web application tool that aims to identify early risk factors in substance abuse that contribute to crime and gender-based violence.
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The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) is a questionnaire sanctioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that screens for problems or risky substance abuse.
Associate Professor Goodman Sibeko, UCT’s head of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry, says the tool allows for empowered intervention, as current indicators for the Department of Health only mandate data collection which indicates whether screening took place and whether some form of intervention has been provided to patients.
‘There is currently no reliable comprehensive passive (collected through routine practice at community-level) risk map for substance use and substance use disorders in South Africa.’
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The tool was developed in partnership with the International Technology Transfer Centre of South Africa to aid the country’s student population, says UCT student representative Naledi Mohale. ‘The alarming stories of students who lose their lives at the hands of their peers remind us that some are perpetrators. The people involved in crime and gender-based violence have gotten closer and closer to our age. As a generation of doers, we often ask ourselves what we can do to curb these social ills. That is why it is important that [an up such as] ASSIST exists.’
According to Anna Molepo, chief deputy commissioner responsible for incarceration and corrections for the Department of Correctional Services, a large number of people currently in the department’s facilities are youth. As of March, 44 219 people out of 157 000 are youth, and 32 000 are classified in the maximum security category. ‘The statistics show the number of youth incarcerated is increasing drastically. Early detection of substance abuse would assist youth not to commit crimes linked to alcohol and substance abuse.’
‘There is great power in not taking away autonomy in intervention; in allowing people to recognise and identify the need by themselves for them to change,’ adds Mohale.
‘In these solutions, we create a university experience for all – that is, an educational experience and one of personal growth; an experience that is not crowded by crime; an experience not marred by constant fear; an experience that is deserved by each and every student entering tertiary institutions in South Africa.’
Some characteristics of the ASSIST tool include:
- Assesses recent substance use over the past three months and collates data to assess lifetime-use risks
- The tool contains a comprehensive list of substances, such as tobacco and alcohol
- The tool provides a level of risk for each substance
- After the assessment is complete, the tool’s Brief Intervention (BI) provides guidance on language and content which could be used in brief intervention
- The ASSIST tool provides information and feedback about the risks associated with each substance, such as physical, medical, and psychological risks of regular substance use
- The tool also refers high-risk scorers to specialised treatment, while others can be treated via a BI
Sibeko adds that key interventions in the tool limit a person’s likelihood of advancing to severe substance abuse, and notes that no identifying mechanism is present in the tool and that no data trail is left.
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