“Realistic” State Approach To Alcoholism Sought

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29220, 2 June 1960, Page 20

“Realistic” State Approach To Alcoholism Sought

i New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN. June 1. The Government should face realistically the problem of the 10,000 to 20,000 alcoholics in New Zealand, said Professor J. E. Caughey at the annual meeting of the Dunedin branch of the National Socety on Alcoholism.

Apart from other considerations, the cost in terms of broken homes, delinquency, absenteeism, sickness and degradation was estimated at £1,000.000 a year. Professor Caughey said. This figure was based on figures estimated in the United States. “Alcoholics are unsatisfactory managers and unsatisfactory workers,” he said. “They have a high accident rate, but also they lower the efficiency of others and may impair the morale of the whole business, industry, or firm.

“It is obvious that alcoholism is a great problem to our national economy, and it is essential that management and labour become vitally interested in it.” Financial Sapport

Finance continued to be a constant cause for anxiety. Professor Caughey said. The Government had done much in the provision of services for the alcoholic by hospitals, clinics, etc., but its financial support of the national society had been inadequate and unreal.

“Expert estimations of the incidence of alcoholism in New Zealand range from 11,600 to 20,000 At a conference with the Health

and Justice Departments in 1955, it was agreed to accept the figure of 10,000 as likely, and it must be remembered that for every alcoholic at least four to six others are adversely affected.”' Professor Caughey said that the incidence of hydatid disease was 200 cases in six years, and the cost to the country through infected offal was estimated at £1.500.000. To combat this New Zealand now spent hundreds of thousands of pounds a year, employed more than 100 field workers, and spent more thpn £122,000 in research over a five-year period. In comparison the employment of only five full-time secretaries and Government support of less than £2OOO a year to combat alcoholism were unreal in a country which boasted of socialised medicine. The work had been handicapped for lack of finance, and time which could have been used for education work had had to be directed towards raising funds from a reluctant public. Professor Caughey made a plea for support from churches, insurance companies, and the licensed trade (which had already helped generously) and the general public. “With 5000 individual members through the country at £1 a year we can develop the care of the alcoholic to the pitch it should be in New Zealand,” he said.