Alcoholism cure ‘cost effective’

Press, 18 October 1976, Page 5

Alcoholism cure ‘cost effective’

It was usually cheaper to cure pebple who suffered from alcoholism than to replace them, 150 Christchurch businessmen were told at a lunch-time address. Father Joseph Martin, an American consultant on alcoholism, said in his address in the Limes Room of the Town Hall that many large companies in America had started programmes to cure employees who were alcoholics because it was “cost effective” to do so. He said that in America 60 to 80 per cent of the alcoholics who were given the proper treatment recovered. It made economic sense to do something about it.

Alcoholism was built into the cost of a company’s product; absenteeism and poor productivity were two ways of spotting an alcoholic. Father Martin said.

“Every time you pay for a pair of socks you are paying for alcoholism,” he said.

Father Martin said that it was not difficult to diagnose alcoholism; if a person’s drinking made trouble for him it was a problem. If a person’s drinking was a cause for discussion among colleagues then it was a problem.

Industry was riddled with alcoholism, Father Martin said, and it was most rampant in top management. He said that he believed relatively little had been done in New Zealand about alcoholism because no one believed it was here.

“If you do not believe that there are alcoholics in industry in New Zealand, you are either ignorant or blind.” Father Martin is in New Zealand for a month and has already talked to many groups of people. He has been working in alcoholism since January 1959, and has been a consultant on alcoholism since 1970.