SA>     The hospital I work at sees much more than its share of alcoholics 
nd
SA>drug addicts, Jane.  Maggots may do short term help for these people and 
may
SA>very well help some of them who are scared enough by the incident to do
SA>something to help themselves, but for many their own suicidal tendencies 
wil
SA>get them (somehow) in the end.
"some of them who are scared enough be the incident to do something
to help themselves" indicates  a complete lack of information concerning
addiction.  And I will bet that there is no one on staff at your
hosptial who is a specialist in dealing with addicts.  The closest will
be some A.A. or N.A. group that come in.
You cannot scare an addict into stopping.
You cannot threaten an addict into stopping.
  Indeed, the street junkies will use the local county jail as a detox
  unit, committing some crime that has a 30 day penalty to get their
  Heroin habit down to manageable size, then go out and start all over
  again.
  Alcoholics manage to find alcohol inside prisons.
One can, however, MOTIVATE an addict when properly taught how to do so.
"their own suicidal tendencies" is a blanket statement that just is
hogwash.  It connotates a mental health stigma on your part that these
people simply do not deserve.
What they need, and what they don't get, is help from other addicts who
have gone on and taken courses in addiction AFTER they got their own
habits under control.  Folks who can walk in and get their attention and
help them heal from a devestating disease.
That is what they need long before the maggot stage of physical
treatment.
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ If this were an actual tagline, it would be funny.
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