Is Radical Harm Reduction More in the Spotlight?
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/12
The Times Colonist is reporting on the treatment of alcoholism with bone drink at a time using a radical harm reduction treatment methodology.
Professor Tim Stockwell, a Psychologist at the University of Victoria and the Director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research said, “Alcohol can kill you in more ways… But somehow it doesn’t deserve the same level of respect in harm-reduction treatments as other substances.”
In his research with colleagues on the efficacy of harm reduction methodologies incorporating doses of alcohol for alcoholics at regular intervals has proven effective, Stockwell explains that these managed-alcohol programs continue to be a radical idea 25 years after their inception.
The Executive Director of Our Place in Victoria, Don Evans, described the activities and initiatives of his own organization with managed-alcohol programs.
Evans explained that the group with those kinds of organizations, but failed to have sufficient space in the organization and resources in order to maintain and fully develop the program at Our Place in Victoria.
Evans states that severe alcoholics may resort to mouthwash and rubbing alcohol in order to satisfy the addiction but that these are brain-damaging substances. That makes the manage alcohol programs as an initiative or program for those “meant for people who have tried everything else, and so it’s a last resort,” Evans explained.
The programs are best given within a therapeutic community with “housing, food and fellowship.” The programs finish within 30 to 60 days. Those programs that have been operational have worked without much notice, according to Stockwell.
The social norms and mores do not permit the allowance of alcohol given in this way. It is taboo, verboten. It is a radical harm reduction program in light of that fact that those with addictions that are homeless or in danger of dying are the ones they are for because abstinence programs simply have not or do not work for them.
If these are programs combined with food and shelter, they can help rebuild the livelihood and potentially family and social networks that these people need. An increase in anxiety is the most noticeable sign of withdrawal in the individual not having their drink.
References
Watts, R. (2018, March 11). Harm-reduction programs help alcoholics one drink at a time. Retrieved from http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/harm-reduction-programs-help alcoholics-one-drink-at-a-time-1.23183082
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