From the perspective of an alcohol worker:
I got involved with Greystones Tameside Ltd – Supported Accommodation for Homeless Men, six years ago. I originally got involved primarily in an administration role but this then led to the role of Support Worker.
Greystones was seeing a lot of men with alcohol issues coming to use the service because they were homeless and Greystones is now recognised as a specialist service for men with alcohol problems. We worked with these men in a general support role but saw that there was a huge gap in services available to them with regard to their alcohol problems. From the feedback the staff at Greystones received from residents it was obvious that most of them could see the damage to their health, and their lives, that alcohol was causing and that ultimately they would like to be abstinent continue to live their lives in that way. In answer to this Greystones set up an abstinence group that would be held twice a week and was run by one of the staff. It was decided that all the staff would take a diploma in order to achieve that qualifications needed to be drug and alcohol counsellors.
I eventually became more involved with this and started to run the abstinence group. Initially I started doing research on the subject of alcoholism in order to help me run the groups, but I found that by listening to the guys in the groups that I learnt far more about alcoholism and a lot of my old thinking and perhaps prejudices were about to be turned on their heads!
Alcoholism is something that is generally viewed as self-inflicted (most of the alcoholics I have talked to don’t even like the taste!) and is not looked on as an addiction to the extent that drugs are. I think this is because alcohol is legal, widely available and socially acceptable. In fact, through talking to the guys in the abstinence groups, I have learnt that the costs to the alcoholic in terms of quality of life are vast i.e. family breakdown, homelessness, health problems etc. It also brings about a loss of self-esteem which seems to me to be the greatest problem. In my experience, people who are dependent on alcohol are very intelligent people who know what alcohol is doing to their lives but are unable to give up drinking without a lot of support (the best support being from others who are in the same position).
What seems to be happening is that when people realise they have a big problem eventually they are sent for a detox, but when they leave the detox centre are then left to their own devices and usually return to drinking almost immediately. This seems to me to be the largest gap in the services. When someone decides to make a change in their lives and they want to be abstinent, not only do they have to cope with the addiction, they often have to change everything about their lives and this may even involve moving out of the area, changing their friends and sometimes even cutting off family relationships. These are problems for which they need ongoing support.
I have learnt a lot about alcoholism since working at Greystones but I think that the best lesson I have learned is that no matter what reason you give an alcoholic for stopping drinking this will not happen until they are ready !!!!! Until that tine you can only try to support them.
I have nothing but the utmost respect for anyone who has achieved abstinence because I now realise how hard that journey has been.
Andrea Boot
Support Worker
