Screening and brief intervention for high-risk alcohol use in Mae La refugee camp, Thailand: a pilot project on the feasibility of training and implementation

Abstract

Many populations that are displaced by conflict experience health and social problems connected to alcohol use. Screening for high-risk alcohol use and brief intervention is a core public health strategy for decreasing the harm related to alcohol use. Experience among populations displaced by conflict is, however, limited. The authors conducted a pilot project in a long standing Burmese refugee camp in Thailand, using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) as a screening instrument. The intervention was piloted through the existing primary health care system. Screening and brief intervention for high-risk alcohol use was feasible in this refugee camp setting. More work is required to assess the effectiveness of this intervention in settings of forced displacement, as well as the feasibility of incorporating such interventions into community mobilisation strategies and measures, addressing the drinking environment more generally.