There is much to be done. If 1 person in 20 is alcoholic, there are 30 million alcoholics in Europe. If we are lucky we might have nearly 100,000 members and most of them are in the UK. Compared to the US, where we have 1 million members, we have a very long way to go.
This means that there are millions of suffering alcoholics who will die in despair and who we might have been able to help if only we had reached them.
This article briefly documents some of our PI activities in the Netherlands.
Presentations to trainee GP’s
There is a good article on an Alcoholism Training Program for Doctors (http://www.aa.org/lang/en/en_pdfs/f-13_winter07.pdf )
Inspired by this article, we made contact with one of the Medical Schools in Amsterdam and arranged to take two or three trainee GP’s to an open meeting three or four times a year. Currently this program has expanded to include two classroom sessions, presenting to some 12 doctors during their Mental Health training course.
The trainee GP’s are already doing an internship in local GP practices and often already had experience with patients with alcohol problems.
Seminars
Almost every one of us ends up in front of a doctor or nurse and, often, they are as bewildered as the alcoholic is. Our seminars are an attempt to explain alcoholism and addiction and how the 12 steps help recovery. It involves co-operating with our friends and giving up anonymity. We started this at our convention in August 2008 with talks from a neurologist, an occupational addiction counselor, an AA and an Al-Anon member. We had 12 attendees one of whom arranged for these talks to be given to a group of 70 Occupational Health Physicians. This course contributed to their Continued Professional Accreditation. We repeated this at the convention in 2009 and 2010 with very small turnouts. More encouragingly 20 Occupational Health Physicians attended a Friday afternoon talk in Utrecht last December. We were invited to talk to trainee doctors in Amsterdam. All of these events were warmly received by the participants. The main hurdle is how to get them there.
Calling Cards
Central to all of our PI initiatives are our bi-lingual calling cards which we produce in collaboration with Dutch AA; listing the website and 24 hour Helpline, English on one side, Dutch on the other. These cards can be left at GP’s offices, Police stations, Hotels, Hospitals, almost anywhere people congregate or seek information. We also give out stacks of these cards at our Healthcare events.
Exhibitions
In Amsterdam, Expatica is an annual fair. As the name suggests, it is an exhibition aimed at the expat community. For the last 5 years AA and Al-Anon have had a stand there. Contact with the public helps to make the fellowship more accessible. Contact with other exhibitors opens up other avenues for PI, notably articles in expat magazines and talks to schools. In this respect Al-Anon is a welcome partner, since many of student audience have parents or other family members with alcohol problems.
Articles
These form into two categories; articles we have written ourselves and newspaper articles where we co-operate with journalists. We have places two AA stories of recovery in Access, a magazine for expat women. Last December two Dutch national newspapers, Het Parool and De Volkskrant, have written their own articles, demonstrating that alcoholism and recovery are newsworthy. Our approach is to assist the journalists with interviews and most importantly taking them to open meetings. This, more than anything, allows them to form their own unbiased opinions. Since these are often Dutch newspapers, we work hand in hand with Dutch PI. This is important. We are much more effective working together, combining our talents, avoiding overlap and above all covering the ground.
Government
Co-operation with our Dutch colleagues is precious to us. Last year we made a joint presentation to the Dutch Ministry of Health, Wellbeing and Sport. None of these activities have had earth shattering results but, little by little, we are improving public awareness and understanding of AA.
Groups
Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
We are starting a campaign to assist groups in their primary purpose. Our hope is that every general practioner, every hospital, police, ambulance service and more know our fellowship better and look to us as a resource in dealing with alcoholism. We can only do this by harnessing all our membership, their enthusiasm and their recovery. Time will tell how this initiative pans out but if it reaches a single suffering alcoholic then we think it a success.
Resources
We have had a wonderful time in developing these initiatives. If you would like a copy of any of the articles, please contact the ArenA Newsletter Editor.
- Invitation to Seminar
- Flier Group workshop
- PowerPoint Presentation to Groups
- AA Article
- PowerPoint Presentation to Government
- AA Calling Cards
Editor’s note: this article has been published in accordance with our ArenA Editorial Policy.