Taiwan’s first alcohol and addiction center has helped about 1,000 people in its first year of operations, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) announced yesterday.
The ministry said it commissioned Mackay Memorial Hospital to establish the Taiwan Alcohol Abstinence and Addiction Prevention Center last year with an initial budget of NT$40 million (US$1.23 million).
Center director Fang Chun-kai (方俊凱) said that of the nearly 1,000 people the center has helped, 178 have been referred for further treatment.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
These issues show that quitting alcohol cannot be done through willpower alone, Fang said.
At a news conference titled “Healthy Taiwan! A Guide to Quitting Alcohol,” Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) and baseball star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) also spoke.
Chou talked about the three essentials to avoiding alcohol addiction — awareness, prevention and quitting — while sharing personal anecdotes about how the pressure of a professional sports career can lead people to depend on alcohol and drugs to rest.
Fang said that of the more than 1,000 inquiries the center has received, more than half were initiated by the person’s friends and family, 30 percent by the drinker themselves, and about 10 percent through community social workers and family centers.
Of the 178 people referred to hospitals for further treatment, about 40 percent had a history of drunk driving, 30 percent had records of alcohol-related violence and 20 percent reported suicidal thoughts, he added.
Quitting alcohol requires a method, he said, adding that it is a myth that addicts can rely on willpower.
Wanting to consume alcohol is not just about desire, and successful treatment could require therapy, behavior change, group therapy or medication, Fang said.
Alcoholism can be divided into two categories, “happy drinking” or “depressed drinking,” which require different treatment plans, Fang added.
The COVID-19 pandemic had hampered efforts to promote new anti-alcohol medication that was introduced in 2019, Fang said.
The ministry since 2015 has promoted its alcohol addiction recovery plan, which subsidizes medical institutions to establish referral channels, promotes new treatment options for addicts and provides social resources to help drinkers reintegrate into society.
Results have shown that about 90 percent of cases have seen a reduction in the frequency or quantity of alcohol consumed after treatment, the ministry said.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
RSS