Canadian treatment program envied by Scotland
VANCOUVER — A radical treatment that provides daily doses of alcohol to people struggling with problem drinking in several Canadian cities is getting attention from other countries wanting to emulate its success.
Bernie Pauly, a scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria, is heading to Scotland in two weeks to speak about a study showing multiple benefits of managed alcohol programs.
A variety of about 20 programs are offered in cities including Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton and Thunder Bay, Ont., with some providing shelter or housing to participants who get about a dozen drinks of wine or other alcohol daily, often through medical supervision.
Programs linked to housing offer people stability and safety from violence on the streets and are included in the ongoing study, Pauly said.
“We sometimes describe it as a madein-Canada example as a response to those issues, and other countries are interested,” she said, adding Australia has begun a feasibility study to determine if it can implement a managed alcohol program.
“We’ve had calls from places in Africa that are interested in what we’re doing because worldwide alcohol use and related harms are responsible for some of the highest proportions of morbidity and mortality,” said Pauly, who is also an associate professor of nursing at the university.
She and other researchers at the institute have written four papers featured in this month’s special issue of the Drug and Alcohol Review as part of the Canadian Managed Alcohol Program Study.
Their findings, based on data from about 380 people, half of whom were in seven managed alcohol programs across the country, showed the participants had fewer hospital visits, detox episodes and police contacts leading to custody.
“Many of the communities that have started managed alcohol programs came from a very compassionate place and said, ‘We need to start with harm reduction, we need to start with giving people a safer place to be and safer sources of alcohol to drink in safer amounts,’ “Pauly said.