Evening star., 1953-12-07
Report on Districts Alcoholic Clinic
By George Kennedy

i established by the Hebert Act is
finishing its fourth year. 1t started on
February 16, 1850, in an old school
building at Twenty third and M streets,
ample quarters which it still occupies
The act increased the license fees of
places selling alcoholic beverages by 10
per cent for rehabilitation. Patients
could be committed there by the court
or come voluntarily. The voluntary pa
tients have formed the bulk of the clin-
les case load.
A dispute over placing the clinic in
the Health Department or making it
an agency reporting independently to
the Commissioners. delayed its incep-
tion. It was finally set up in the
Health Department. In the meantime
a backlog of more than 100000 had
accumulated.
Income from license fees is about
$4,000 a year. The clinic has been
spending about 100000 by dipping
into the backlog. This is about ex-
pended and the clinic will have to re-
duce its expenditures by a fourth or
persuade Congress to supplement its
revenues If it is to continue on the
same scale.
Due to the optimism of the clinics
sponsors that it would save the tax
payer money spent in caring for
drunks at the Jail or the workhouse.
the clinic may be under a handicap
in asking Congress for more money.
The docket Of the Monday morning
drunk court is bigger than when the
clinic started. So is the drunkard popu-
lation of the penal institutions. The
optimism emanated. from New Haven.
The yale Plan" was attracting great
attention. At last something scientific
was being done about alcoholism. The
scientific work is still being carried on
in Connecticut, both in research and
rehabilitation. In fairness to the local
clinic it should be reported that Con-
necticut has experienced no more Sue
cess than the District in tightening the
burden of the court caused by drunken
ness.
Forty three hundred and eighty-sev-
en- persons have come to the clinic;
$500 voluntarily, 587 referred by the
court. The latter figure is q surpris-
ingly small total for almost four years.
Often there are more than 200 persons
charged with drunkenness in the lineup
for Monday court and sometimes more
than 100 on weekdays.
The clinic has social worker in con-
slant attendance at court to select sal
vageable material. The judges cooper
ate. But the selection is small.
The judges favor continuation of the
clinic. Judge Nadine Gallagher, who
has taken great interest in the clinic
remembers two women and one man
she sent there who have been doing
well since. The number might seem
small but in the hopeless mass that
the judge in drunk court has to proc
ess" every Monday morning, any salv-
age seems miraculous.
DR.. Leopold E. Wexberg, until re-
Gently director of the clinic, has an
article in the current issue of Yale
University's Quarterly Journal of
Studies on Alcohol. He says:
"The number of court referrals has
been going steadily downward since
February, 1850 when the clinic
opened. AS soon as the staff became
aware of this, efforts were made to
reach the same type of alcoholics by
going out to the District Jail or to the
workhouSe in Occoquan. This seemed
to be quite SuccesSful-but only for a
while. Very soon the number of volun-
tary patients recruited from the peni-
tentiaries decreased and is about to
peter out, just as the court cases did
1T is obvious that the initial accept
ance of the Alcoholic Rehabilitation
Program by the destitute type of alco-
hOlicS was due to a miSconception on
the side of the patients. They believed
that volunteering for the Alcoholic Re-
Mobilization Program would get them
on the good side of the law, with mild
er punishment, suspended sentences
and like advantages. When these
hopes did not materialize, their inter-
est faded. Grapevine rumor began to
spread that any one volunteering for
the clinic could expect a double-stiff
sentence, should he be re-arrested The
result was progressive decrease in the
number of volunteers from these
sources.
The only answer to this problem is
the candid admission that an outpa-
tient clinic without residential facilities
at its disposal does not work for desti-
tutA alcoholics"
DA' %AAOAASAJ AJuPPdAob OA1C PICoGIlL
director of the clinic, believes it is i'm
portant, in appraising the work of the
clinic, to remember that only out
patient treatment has been available
and that no in-care facilities exist. On
the other hand, he thinks the clinic
is proving of great assistance in fight
ing coholism-described as the fourth
most serious public health problem.
He says:
1.-The unimpreSSive success with the
social misfit drinkers, as compared to
the gratifying results with patients in
the early or middle stage of the illness.
alcoholism. is clear in all reports. The
chronic social-misfit drinker as a rule
rather than the exception presents a
long history of unemployment, dis
social behavior and repeated court ap-
pearances for chronic drunkenness;
dissertation from family and friends
has long ago taken place. Although this