The City Giving Wine to Alcoholics

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2016

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The conventional treatment for chronic alcoholics is abstinence. Not in Ottawa. At the Oaks, a residence for those who were once homeless, occupants are given a measure of white wine at hourly intervals throughout the day. The ‘Managed Alcohol Program’ has improved the health of its participants, reduced their alcohol intake, and in some cases enabled them to stop drinking altogether. It’s also saved the city of Ottawa millions of dollars in public services – one man was hospitalised 191 times in the six months before joining the programme. Hours and hours of police time have been clawed back too – this is a population used to stealing to feed addiction, but the hourly ‘pour’ enables them to refrain from criminal activity. The Ottawa programme has been introduced in other Canadian cities, and it’s now attracting international attention. Linda Pressly spends time at the Oaks to find out how it works.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a BBC podcast.
0:02.3	You can get all our podcasts and our terms of use
0:04.9	at BBCworldservice.com slash podcasts. Would you give wine to a chronic alcoholic? That's what they do in the Canadian capital of Ottawa.
0:23.0	I'm Linda Presley and for assignment on the BBC World Service
0:27.0	I've been exploring a unique approach to addiction. In a
0:35.0	converted hotel in the West of Ottawa, a patient, good nature.
0:39.0	In a converted hotel in the west of Ottawa,
0:41.0	a patient good nature cue of middle-aged and older men and women
0:45.4	wait their turn.
0:47.3	It's the hands you notice, scarred, bruised or swollen, fingernails chipped or bitten
0:52.4	to the quick, and all of them clutching a cup, mug, glass or
0:56.3	flask, any receptacle in fact.
0:59.4	Welcome to the Oaks residents. That's the sound of wine, California White, 13% alcohol, homemade on the premises, being measured into a jug.
1:15.0	Every hour on the half hour, from 730 in the morning until 930 at night,
1:20.0	nearly 50 alcoholics who used to live on the streets are given their fix.
1:25.0	It's known as the poor.
1:27.0	It certainly isn't a cure for addiction, but it's changed the drinking behavior of imbetter
1:32.3	at addicts. People used to
1:34.1	binging blacking out and who've often resorted to swigging hair spray, surgical
1:38.6	spirit or mouthwash. This is fancy space, so he's getting seven.
1:45.0	That's seven ounces of wine that Lucia is serving Francis,
1:49.0	nearly 200 millilators, a larger than average sized glass of wine in Europe.
	...

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