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CNA
20-05-2025
- CNA
Drug offenders in halfway houses less likely to reoffend after release compared to others: SPS
SINGAPORE: New data from the Singapore Prison Service (SPS) showed that drug offenders in halfway house programmes are less likely to reoffend after they are released. Among the latest cohort released in 2022, 23.5 per cent reoffended within two years – lower compared with the nearly 30 per cent who did not go through the programme and fell back into drug abuse, according to the government agency. SPS said halfway houses help to keep offenders away from drugs, get them employed and help them secure a place to stay. About 60 per cent of halfway house residents secure jobs, vocational training or education during their stay and 98 per cent are able to find accommodation before they are discharged, said SPS. HELPED BY HALFWAY HOUSES At The Helping Hand, ex-resident Mr Chan Ah Chin, who graduated last year, is giving back to the halfway house, which he credits for turning around his life. The 59-year-old said the programme was much better than other forms of rehabilitation, following multiple incarcerations, as it supported him in taking up new courses. 'There's no more going back to the old times taking drugs. All the staff, quite good (to) me. Some teach (me) how to do things, how to respect people,' he said, adding that his 96-year-old mother is overjoyed with his rehabilitation. He now works as a security guard at the facility, hoping to set an example for residents like 48-year-old Jack – not his real name – get clean and reintegrate into society. Jack, who is going through his fourth rehabilitation and a 20-year battle with drugs, told CNA he did not want to disappoint his family anymore. "My parents are getting older. I would really want to spend my time with them … because they have always been there for me,' he said. This is Jack's first time in a halfway house. He hopes the programme, which he said has taught him life skills, will help him find a stable career in F&B when he completes his sentence. Like Jack, Aaron – also not his real name – who is at HCSA Highpoint halfway house, hopes the programme will assist in keeping him on the straight and narrow after being incarcerated seven times. The 55-year-old credits the dedication of the staff in encouraging him to turn the page on his past. He said their support never wavered even after he left the halfway house prematurely, discharging himself in January last year after he was suspected of possessing and consuming substances. Aaron returned to HCSA Highpoint four months later after seeking detoxification treatment at the National Addictions Management Service. The clinic, which was set up at the Institute of Mental Health with the support of the Ministry of Health, provides treatment for people with addictions. "(If) I go back to drugs, I have to lose a lot of things - my family, my loved ones. I hate this drug. Frankly speaking, I am really sick and tired of this,' he told CNA. FLEXIBLE BUT STRICT LIFE Inhabitants of halfway houses are given more freedom than those in prisons but they must abide by firm rules involving discipline and punctuality, following a compulsory curfew and a strict schedule. Some are given the flexibility to leave the premises for educational classes, skills training or work, and may even go home on weekends to see their families. This is dependent on their external family situation and if there is an employer or organisation providing work or training. SPS officers and halfway house staff members conduct surprise urine tests and regular checks for controlled drugs and contraband including alcohol, cigarettes and vapes. All medication must have a valid prescription. Thorough searches will be done if a resident cannot produce a urine sample or in the event of a positive test result. Authorities said positive cases will be brought to the Central Narcotics Bureau for further testing and residents could face fresh charges. "The operation is important in order to deter the drug abuse in the halfway house, so that it sets an example for others to stop all the drug abuse,' said Chief Warder Edmund Lim Boon Hwee, a reintegration officer, referring to spot checks. Drug offenders are three times more likely to re-offend compared with other crimes, according to the SPS. NEW DRUGS POSE A NEW CHALLENGE Halfway houses said they are facing a growing challenge in the form of new psychoactive substances, which mimic the effects of controlled substances but go undetected in urine tests. One illicit product of particular concern is "Kpods" – vape juice laced with etomidate, an anaesthetic agent. "When they smoke it, they will get high in 20 minutes, in a very fast way. Some cannot take it. They just overdose,' said Mr Adam, a staff member at The Helping Hand, who preferred not to give his last name. He added that such synthetic drugs can damage a user's brains, and can undermine the entire rehabilitation process. Staff have been trained to spot tell-tale signs and behavioural indicators of those abusing substances. 'We have to develop our own clinical skills to basically assess a person. (Such as) eyes are very red, walk in a stagger, slurring speech, cannot put sentences together, thoughts a bit haywire,' said Mr Samuel Wong, a programme manager at HCSA Highpoint. 'These kinds of bodily, physical … manifestation of a person who is high, with some experience, you can see that.' Mr Wong was a former substance abuser whose journey to integration has come full circle. Now clean from drugs, he serves at the halfway house where he was once incarcerated as a resident in 2011. After returning to society, Mr Wong became a manager at the facility in 2016. He said his experience allows him to better understand the challenges of drug abusers, as well as to support and counsel them.
Boston Globe
06-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
How a mobile phone game is helping teens deal with the trauma of war
The idea for the app came out of work by a team of psychologists and psychotherapists in Norway who developed a paper-based game they used to role-play with struggling teens in that country. In Advertisement 'We found very good results with an analog version of this game,' said clinical psychologist Solfrid Raknes, who helped design the game. That got the team thinking 'making it into an interactive [mobile] game would really be more scalable.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up A core principle of The Helping Hand game includes scenarios such as talking with a fictional friend who is depressed or having trouble with a parent. The game offers multiple conversational prompts the player can choose from to help the fictional friend and learn which responses are most effective. Advertisement A screenshot from Helping Hand, a mobile game developed in Boston based on trauma-reduction techniques from psychology. Courtesy of Attensi The firm has created versions in Arabic for refugee kids from Syria as well as a Ukrainian version for adolescents in that war zone. Attensi's scenario writers were used to learning about business situations but had to reach a higher level of empathy to construct the Helping Hand game, said Huw Newton-Hill, general manager of North America at the firm. 'A lot of our writers did actually travel to go experience some of what they were writing about, but there's no way they can really internalize that experience,' Newton-Hill said. 'People who can bring a story to life, bring characters to life, within such difficult contexts [are] really powerful.' Another challenge making the game was ensuring it could run on older, slower phones and tablets in use among the kids in refugee communities, Newton-Hill said. The team had to shrink the size of files while making sure the characters in the game still came across as realistic. All of the findings so far show that the mobile game is even more effective than the old paper versions, Raknes said. With Syrian refugee kids, 85 percent said they were feeling symptoms of anxiety and depression before playing. After 10 sessions of the game, only 15 percent reported such signs. 'For adolescents today, it is easier to create engagement from an interactive game than from handing out a booklet and asking them to read something,' she said. Aaron Pressman can be reached at
