An interesting new method of dealing with problem drinkers has emerged from The Hague. A volunteer organisation in Amsterdam has found a new, totally unorthodox method of dealing with alcohol addicts who steer up trouble in public areas by providing them with beer in exchange for them cleaning up public spaces.
It appears the problem of alcohol addicts spending their days in public parks has gotten out of hand in the city which is why these addicts are being gather in community centres for a day of work, cleaning up the parks and are rewarded with a beer with which to start their day.
An excerpt from a report on http://news.xinhuanet.com explains:
It is 9 a.m. and Tom can’t wait to have another beer. Tom is one of the first alcohol addicts today who gather at the community center for another day of work. And while most workdays in the Netherlands start with a fine cup of coffee, he and the others team members start their day of work with a can of tepid beer.
Tom a member of the special cleaning force composed of 19 alcohol addicts. While most of them used to cause trouble in the neighborhood by being publicly drunk and shout at people, now they pick up the rubbish from the bushes. The reward for their public service is beer.
“That cupboard over there is our treasury,” Tom says while pointing at the large cupboard behind the round table. The storeroom is ceiling-stuffed with beers and Tom impatiently gazes at the six-packs piled up to the top.
“Here you are,” team leader Gerrie says, distributing one can for each worker in the room, while accurately ticking off the names on the list.
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-08/24/c_132659967.htm
It is unlikely that such an approach would ever be adopted by other nations but what exactly is the reasoning behind the strange approach?
Well apparently it is a way of providing structure to these drinkers’ days which would normally just be wasted drinking in the park.
The initiative focuses rather on exchanging drinker’s work with 5 cans of beer, a warm meal, a tobacco pack and 10 euros for each day’s work. These people are finally being reached despite numerous attempts. There are around 82,000 alcohol addicts in the Netherlands and every year almost 30,000 people with an alcohol problem are treated.
In the Netherlands there are numerous professional treatment facilities available for problem drinkers with an emphasis placed on early intervention and outpatient treatment.
Most participants of the programme have experience living on the street and many of them have serious health issues which costs the economy millions. So giving alcohol does not sound like a responsible thing to do in the first place but Dutch counsellors believe their method is effective, having experienced a positive change in the last year from these methods.