ALCOHOLISM IN N.Z.

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30971, 29 January 1966, Page 21

ALCOHOLISM IN N.Z.

‘Family Suffer Most’ CN.Z. Press Association) PAMERSTON N, Jan. 28. An estimated 275,000 New Zealanders were directly affected by alcoholism, Mr K. D. Macßae, director of the Hutt Valley Marriage Guidance Council, said at Massey University. Mr Macßae, who was addressing this week’s seminar on alcoholism, said there were 25,000 alcoholics in New Zealand. It was also estimated that an average of 10 other persons were affected by the behaviour of one alcoholic, so on this basis 275,000 were involved.

Of all affected the family suffered most. “The important fact to note is that the overwhelming majority of alcoholics are not in hospitals or institutions, they are not the derelicts of society, incapacitated down-and-outs, but people who are carrying on in their jobs, however inadequately, and living in their own homes with the other members of their families.”

A wife’s capacity to cope with the marriage and family situation depended to some extent on her understanding of the nature of alcoholism. There was a continuing need for education on the nature of alcoholism as a sickness, and for all possible sources of help to be made available to the problem drinkers and their families.