Most important to this approach is the presentation of a unified front, not in blaming the patient but in firmly stating the fact that alcoholism is a disease, which has resulted in specific adverse repercussions for both the patient and the family. At this meeting, the family presents the patient with a plea to acknowledge the destructive effects of alcoholism and asserts full family support for the patient throughout a treatment program intended to achieve sobriety. Because keeping a job is a powerful motivation for a patient to get well and stay well, employers may be in the most powerful position to help an alcoholic. The alcoholic employee should be seen as a valuable resource temporarily disabled by disease. When company policy and attitude convey that the job remains available provided that sobriety can be achieved and maintained, successful treatment outcomes are among the highest on record.
Alcoholism is a powerful adversary.
Persistence, patience, and unyielding resolve are essential for the physician and all who care about the patient to close all doors for the alcoholic except the one leading to treatment. Alcoholics who reach and remain in treatment either by court order or as a condition of employment appear to do as well as those who go willingly.