In 1995 or so, the City of Gallup, New Mexico opened a new facility to work on the chronic public inebriation problem there. This was an innovation. Prior to that (and as many places still do) public drunkenness resulted in arrests and jailing. I haven’t been able to find analysis of how well or poorly such a center works. I know Fairbanks has tried to institute something similar. At least, this newsclip offers a phone number for folks to follow-up with.
Does anyone know of studies which have evaluated the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program for non-middle class or non-Euro-American populations or for women?
(I highly recommend reading the important book by James P. Spradley, an anthropologist. Originally published in 1970, it is a participant-observer report on the culture of Skid Road, Seattle.)
You Owe Yourself a Drunk: An Ethnography of Urban Nomads
# Publisher: Little, Brown (1970), ASIN: B0006C2SIO
# Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc (1999), ISBN-10: 1577660854, ISBN-13: 978-1577660859
Sobering center up and running
Santa Fe County’s new sobering center, which has accepted 55 clients since it opened in late November, gets referrals from St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.
So far, nine clients have been repeats.
At the center, which has 10 beds for men and five for women, clients can stay as long as five days.
They are encouraged to participate in 12-step meetings and consider going into treatment.
Four clients have been referred to the Santa Fe Recovery Center, the county’s only publicly funded inpatient treatment center.
Call 995-9550 for more information.
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I am currently writing on background paper on Sobering Centers in Europe, Australia, USA and Canada ~ trying to establish a centre locally (British Columbia, Canada). Not sure if you are still seeking information…. If so, I can share what I have accummulated.
I would be very interested. The latest proposal for Bethel is for a new one at the hospital, adjacent to the jail. There have been others in the past but none currently, except for a treatment center. It would be good to know under what conditions and for what purposes they work or whether some other action is better.
If you have a link to published summary please feel free to add it here. Alternatively, you could even post your summary here. Otherwise, you can e-mail me at ykalaska at gmail dot com. I have a Connotea bookmarks collection for sharing references, too. (see sidebar feed, Alcohol control articles at Connotea)