TWO YEARS IN HOSPITALS, JAILS - $11,000

FROM THE JOURNAL

Two alcoholism workers who kept track of a transient gamma alcoholic for a period of two years - during which he has been incarcerated 61 times in hospitals and jails at a cost of $11,543 - propose that an alternative to these rehabilitative modalities is needed for such patients. Instead of therapeutic reintegrative facilities, which the alcoholic told them candidly, that he and his cohorts will simply walk away from, the two psycholgists propose that domiciliary residences be established that would accept alcoholics on their own terms, without attempting to reform or reintegrate them into society at large.

The psychologists who did the study are Drs. Linda and Mark Sobell of the Orange County Alcoholism service in Santa Ana, Cal. They discovered during another study, an extremely canny roadwise alcoholic who agreed to contact them by letter or phone collect, every couple of weeks. Following his reports of where had been, they wrote to the hospital or jail to obtain a record of his stay and a bill or estimate of the cost.

Of the 808 days they followed him he was incarcerated on 570, and drunk of 141 others. Thirty-five of his incarcerations lasting 485 days, were in hospitals, in 20 different cities in 11 different states. The average cost per day: $22. The remaining 26 incarcerations were in jails in 20 different cities. He spent 85 days in jail at an average cost per day of just under $8.

The alcoholic confided that when he was hungry or needed a place to sleep he called the police and turned himself in, requesting assistance. If you turn yourself in, he told them, "You get better treatment and legally they are obliged to help."

Asked why he stayed on the road, he replied:
"Because I have developed the loner pattern - if a guy is too nice to me, right away I think - he either wants some help on something that's illegal, or he's queer, or both."

When the Drs. Sobell asked their subject to suggest an alternative to the costly treatment plans that he found inadequate, he told them:
"My feeling is there ought to be a place where a man or woman can go -there are women on the road too - where one can stay long enough to get his driver's license - his records, all of his stuff. Get them together and stay there and work. Pay $30, $60, $90 a month - and get some therapy help during this period until everybody concerned decided it was feasible the odds were in his favor. Then he could go out and rent an apartment and continue to do well - It's got to be voluntary, or it's no good. "You can't be forced."

At the very least, this alcoholic remarked, such a system would be cheaper than hospitals and jails. The Drs. Sobell agree, and suggest domicilliary type care centres might be tried for transients, with maintenance rather than social rehabilitation as their primary objective.


Don says: For one year in the late 70's I was chairman of Alpha House in Toronto. Alpha House was administered and funded by the United and Anglican churches. There were 35 beds available, which were filled at all times. Each resident on an average stayed for about a month, enough time to get cleaned up, medically followed, thus back out to society. These were skid row inhabitants, and ultimately I found that there was not one resident who did not go back to alcoholism. I agree that it was very good for these people, all men, however the call of the street was too much and they went back to their old ways.
After one year I called it quits, I had had enough! The stress was immense and was threatening my sobriety.