It’s true. Being destitute and a drug addict or morbidly alcoholic in Canada practically makes you a celebrity. [/quote]
It does in Toronto, where they seem to prefer transients to tourists.
Seriously, many of these people are substance abusers and / or mentally ill, and therefore incapable of helping themselves. Why not pick them up off the street and help them instead of enabling them?
Yes. Good point.
[quote]alcohol has the most severe physical withdrawal syndrome of all the drugs of addiction, more severe than heroin and other opiates and, in some cases, resulting in death.. . . .
The most common symptoms of alcohol withdrawal are insomnia, tremors, craving for alcohol, vivid dreams, anxiety, agitation, irritability, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, headache and sweating. Some symptoms resolve in hours, but others may last for days and weeks. The severity of symptoms that individuals experience varies; some experience only mild symptoms, while others suffer severe symptoms, which include hallucinosis, seizures and delirium tremens (DTs). [b]DTs can last for several days, and about 5% of patients who experience DTs die from metabolic or cardiovascular complications and/or trauma. In addition, alcohol withdrawal is one of the most common causes of status epilepticus
Bingo. That’s exactly what should be done in a lot of cases. In BC though they don’t do that because the government “cut back” on funding for mental health services.
. . . . lot’s of Emergency Rooms in the States keep beer in the refrigerator for alcoholics who come in to prevent withdrawals. The rationale is - we’re not a detox facility, we’re an E.R. I’ve taken care of folks who are admitted for some medical reason other than their alcohol addiction. So, while we’re diagnosing their other medical problem and/or treating it, we give 'em beer or wine to prevent withdrawal. Then, we release them out on to the street when we’re through. :loco: and yet not.[/quote]
Interesting, Bodo. Didn’t know that.
. . . . lot’s of Emergency Rooms in the States keep beer in the refrigerator for alcoholics who come in to prevent withdrawals. The rationale is - we’re not a detox facility, we’re an E.R. I’ve taken care of folks who are admitted for some medical reason other than their alcohol addiction. So, while we’re diagnosing their other medical problem and/or treating it, we give 'em beer or wine to prevent withdrawal. Then, we release them out on to the street when we’re through. :loco: and yet not.[/quote]
Interesting, Bodo. Didn’t know that.[/quote]
Bob, as a former ER security guard I find this hard to believe. May I request some proof? I saw dozens and dozens of drunks and detox candidates come in, shaking violently or slowly crashing and burning, and none were ever offered alcohol, although some drank the rubbnig alcohol.
Seems like a lawsuit and a half waiting to happen.
I have seen it done for alcoholics waiting for surgery. Not commonly, but it done occasionally. In fact my father, who is an incredible binge drinker and hospitalised for detox innumerable times, was given a six pack of beer each night in the lead up to and post a major operation. This was supplied by the state and ordered by his anaethetist. I was stunned.
When I first started psychiatric nursing thre was still in place in various states of Australia an “Inebriates act,” which basically allowed the state to hospitalise alcoholics deemed a danger to themselves or others. The cheese at the hospital was prduced on a farm for recovering alcoholics, and those declared hopeless cases and thus permanetly housed by the state. Many of these were retarded and alcoholics, or alcoholics with Korsakoff’s syndrome (brain damage from the drink).
Of course the farm and indeed the hospital have since gone, supposedly replaced with “integration into the community,” a neat trick that sounded great on paper but basically meant flinging open the bin doors and letting society deal with mad people and alcoholics. Funnny thing is society didn’t, so now the prisons are overburdened. Many of the chronically mad can now be seen wondering the streets.
While the big state psyche hospitals certainly had their faults, they did as one fat matron assured me early in my training, offer the best interpretation of the word assylum. An assylum for mad people to be mad without concern to the damage they were doing to their relationships with friends, families and place in society or indeed ruining themselves financially.
HG
. . . . lot’s of Emergency Rooms in the States keep beer in the refrigerator for alcoholics who come in to prevent withdrawals.
Interesting, Bodo. Didn’t know that.[/quote]
Bob, as a former ER security guard I find this hard to believe. May I request some proof? I saw dozens and dozens of drunks and detox candidates come in, shaking violently or slowly crashing and burning, and none were ever offered alcohol, although some drank the rubbnig alcohol.[/quote]
My impression, JD, is that you guys probably have a lot more first hand experience with this than I do (almost inevitable, since I have zero first hand experience).
Nonetheless, if such a policy were indeed to be put to use in hospital ERs, my guess is that is would not be something that the hospitals would advertize (i.e. that written “proof” might not be so easy to find). For obvious reasons.
Of course, it’s possible that one might find second hand reports of such practices (on the internet, or elsewhere), but it certainly doesn’t strike me as the kind of thing that you’d find on an AMA website or other official publication put out by the hospitals.
Just a thought. 