Moderate, Regular Alcohol Doses Help Severe Alcoholics
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/03/04
The regulated doses provided to severe alcoholics may be a solution to help the individuals suffering from alcoholism. The methodology is part of radical harm reduction, associated with harm reduction in general, and can assist in the stabilization of the lives of the alcoholics.
Four studies published by researchers from the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria showed that radical harm reduction through the highly structured managed alcohol programs (MAPs) program can help patients in residential facilities with doses given hourly or every hour and a half.
The CISUR Director, Tim Stockwell, said, “(MAPs) can achieve significant harm-reduction objectives for this very vulnerable population… These people are experiencing a lot of harm and creating a lot of cost.”
Those who use alcohol products that are cheap tend to be the homeless, where they can fail to access the shelters available in their locale due to the extreme intoxication at times. There have been reduced harms from the MAPs methodology including “violence, alcohol poisoning and death due to exposure.”
Stockwell continued, “This solution is for a small population of people who are without housing, who can’t keep housing due to explosive drinking patterns… The program must include strategies to manage outside drinking to maximize harm reduction.”
The participants should be in the facility for an hour before receiving a dose. There is support, but highly structured access and delivery. It discourages supplementation by the severe alcoholic with “outside sources of alcohol.”
Canada has 14 MAP programs with numerous probably informal setups throughout the country. Vancouver has a formal MAP program on Station Street and an informal one several blocks away through the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.
There are many programs like this, formal and informal, throughout the country structured within a harm reduction and, less often, a radical harm reduction provision methodology.
References
Shore, R. (2018, February 20). Radical harm reduction for illicit alcohol may save lives, studies find. Retrieved from http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/radical-harm-reduction-for illicit-alcohol-may-save-lives-studies-find.
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