Time Of The Essence For Alcohol Treatment

Time Of The Essence For Alcohol Treatment

Thursday 2 September 2004

One of the major challenges for health care providers in the 21st century is identifying individuals early in their involvement with alcohol misuse and to intervene in a timely manner, says the Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC).

ALAC addressed addiction treatment workers at a workshop at the ninth National Treatment Conference In Palmerston North today and said that it was important to ensure treatment was available not only for those who were alcohol-dependent but also for those who were just beginning to experience problems or weren’t at the dependent stage.

“Alcohol-related problems are distributed throughout the population and range in intensity along a continuum from those who were dependent on alcohol to those who were indulging in risky drinking,” said ALAC Chief Executive Officer Dr Mike MacAvoy. “Alcohol-related treatments or solutions should therefore reflect the ‘problem continuum’.”

Dr MacAvoy said there had been a tendency in the past to concentrate on those at the dependent end of the continuum. However, ALAC was currently involved in identifying a number of early intervention strategies for use with those at the early stages of alcohol-related problems. Intervention early on in the problem could prevent problems escalating.

“We would estimate that about two to five percent of the population is chronically dependent at any one time. Conversely our research shows that about 1.2 million people in New Zealand are accepting of intoxication and 350,000 New Zealanders binged on their last drinking occasion. This is where the major harm is occurring.

“About 10 percent of our population might experience a level of dependency at any stage in their drinking lives, but that doesn’t mean they are alcoholic, nor do they necessarily need to give up drinking entirely. They might be going through a difficult personal time or are participating in a particular social scene where there’s a lot of drinking going on for example. They’re relying on alcohol for whatever reason, but aren’t necessarily needing it in the same way a dependent drinker is.”

Early intervention involves detecting and screening of alcohol (or drug) use and providing an intervention before major problems develop, he said. Early intervention should be able to be delivered outside traditional settings, that is, not just in medical/clinical settings.

“ALAC is working on a number of early intervention projects including for use in the workplace, with young people, with students, police and with the medical profession,” he said.

“The aim is to prevent ongoing hazardous drinking or the slide into dependent drinking.”
Cutting Edge is a three-day annual treatment conference in alcohol, drug and co-existing disorders being held at the Palmerston north Convention Centre. It is hosted by ALAC and the National Addiction Centre in conjunction with the Treatment Research Interest Group (Alcohol, Drugs & Addiction) (TRIG).

This is the largest gathering of those who work in the treatment of alcohol, drug, and gambling disorders with more than 300 delegates expected to attend.

The purpose is to keep up to date with new development. The principal theme is integration. Issues of integration with mental health, alcohol and drug with gambling, Maori, Pacific with mainstream services will be addressed. There will be overseas speakers from the UK, USA and Australia.

ENDS

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