Psychologists step in to help pre-alcoholics

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34085, 24 February 1976, Page 1

Psychologists step in to help pre-alcoholics

Two clinical psychologists in Christchurch are about to begin a course of meetings to help people who want to drink less alcohol.

Their plan is not for people who must be acknowledged as alcoholics, for whom the complete rejection of alcohol is part of the solution to the drinking problems..

The psychologists expect that the assistance offered at the meetings will be acceptable to many who have a drinking problem: they will not have to stop drinking altogether.

A prospect of abstinence puts many people off taking some helpful action until it is too late to take any but the most drastic action. The organisers of the course are Mrs L. M. Image

and Mr R. O. Stanley, both of whom work on alcohol problems at Sunnyside Hospital. They are inviting candidates for their course to form a group that will meet regularly in the central city. Because they expect a wide range of ages and occupations, the psychologists believe that people will learn much from each other’s experience and example. But one of the conditions of attendance will be that personal information must remain confidential.

Social strain “Most treatment for alcoholic problems in New Zealand is conducted within hospitals and is aimed at helping the alcoholic to abstain from drinking. This imposes social difficulties on the alcoholic because, in New Zealand, alcohol is very much part of most social situations,” they say.

“If people seek help in limiting their drinking before it reaches alcoholic proportions, it is possible for them to attempt to limit their drinking. Abstinence is not usually regarded as essential for such people. "It is also commonly believed that efforts to intervene early in the progress towards alcoholism have a much better chance of success. Although our health services offer little opportunity for such intervention, for the last year Christchurch has had a service for problem drinkers. This service has been supplied to people on periodic detention for

offences connected with excessive drinking.

“Such offenders have attended a course on alcoholism that was arranged by the probation service of the Justice Department. It is equally important that other people who feel they are drinking excessively should have help,” say Mrs image and Mr Stanley.

Own goals

The meetings will focus attention on drinking and on the circumstances that make it a habit, but each person will set his own goal and use the group to help him reach it.

“Obviously, the process of strengthening an individual’s control over his or her drinking will take time,” the psychologists say. “The group will meet once a week for 15 weeks.”

This period has been calculated to give the group’s members enough time to run into the likely difficulties — and to overcome them.

People who apply to the psychology department at Sunnyside Hospital will be invited to a preliminary meeting at which the organisers will explain the scheme. This is so that those interested can understand what is entailed before they decide whether they will take part. According to the organisers, the definition of people who should take the course is simple: “The only requirements are that they feel they drink too much and that they have not had previous therapy as alcoholics, but wish to do something about their problem.”

Containers.— The 100,000 th container to be handled in New Zealand by Associated Container Transportation will be shipped this week aboard the ACT 6 at Wellington.— (P.A.).