HEALTHY ALCOHOLICS

EASIER TO TREAT -
Hamilton

Alcoholics are getting onto the band wagon of personal responsibility for health and it's making them easier to treat.

George Blake, director of psychological services at Oshawa General Hospital, and formerly director of its Pinewood Centre for alcoholism, spoke of changing attitudes at the annual Institute on Addiction Studies here.

"We have seen attitudes change from regarding alcoholism as a moral issue, associated with crime and with being bad, to a disease model, and back to the moral issue in disguise...Responsibility for one's health and one's behaviour implies personal standards.

"Those of us who work in clinics are finding it easier and easier to get the alcoholic to respond to treatment." Dr. Blake said. "Certainly our techniques have improved, but also there have been changes in societal attitudes towards alcoholism - employee assistance programs for example - to remove the stigma."

"But most importantly, individuals are finding it easier to make personal decisions about their alcoholism...The alcoholic is part of a trend...people are participating more in health producing activities."Self-imposed health risks, including alcoholism now account for more deaths, hospitalization, and sickness than all viral and bacterial conditions, he said, and the health care delivery system is making individuals more accountable for their well-being.

The medical message is no longer, "You're ill, I'll treat you' but, 'what are you doing to stress yourself'. A measure of how up-to-date your doctor is in his thinking is whether he asks about drinking, smoking, and other aspects of life-style , Dr. Blake said."

TORONTO STAR

DON SAYS: The system if forging ahead in the battle against alcoholism! Let's get the word out, Alcohol kills and maims.