Increasing access to psychosocial interventions for alcohol use disorders: Home based interventions

Alcohol use disorders (AUD) are a significant and growing public health problem in India. However, health services for AUD remain largely confined to large institutions and a significant proportion of people with AUD do not having access to help for their alcohol related problems. One way of changing this status quo is making evidence based psychosocial interventions available in communities and closer to people's homes. There is extensive evidence supporting the effectiveness of a range of psychosocial interventions for AUDs. This is further augmented by the growing evidence for the effectiveness of contextually appropriate psychosocial interventions, such as Counselling for Alcohol Problems (CAP) from India, that are designed to increase access to care through delivery by non-specialist health workers. The effective implementation of such interventions integrated into collaborative care models will go a long way in reducing the treatment gap for AUDs in India.