Alcohol Treatment Matrix Row 5: Safeguarding the Community

Time to consolidate the lessons of the course’s last five instalments about treatment intended to safeguard the community, the final row of the Alcohol Treatment Matrix. A common theme is the contradiction between treatment centred on the patient’s welfare, yet offered within a system which prioritises the wider community, and sees the patient essentially as a threat. That divide is regularly and productively bridged, but not without difficulty, and sometimes not well enough for research to discern the intended benefits. Read on...