Free booze makes homeless healthier?

[giza]

From an article on Reuters:

Seventeen homeless adults, all with long and chronic histories of alcohol abuse, were allowed up to 15 glasses of wine or sherry a day -- a glass an hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. -- in the Ottawa-based program, which started in 2002 and is continuing.

After an average of 16 months, the number of times participants got in trouble with the law had fallen 51 percent from the three years before they joined the program, and hospital emergency room visits were down 36 percent.

The mind boggles.

Comments

[drleo.livejournal.com]

I call shenanigans. I think part of the reason they get in trouble with the law is because they're finding ways to get liquor: if they're just given it one an hour, they don't need to try and beg, borrow, or steal for it.

[wesha.livejournal.com]

Hear ya hear ya!

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Yeah

Plus... they probably won't wander too far if they ''have'' to be there every hour to get their free licquor, so accidents or things like that may be reduced.

They (the program) know where they are, and they're not forcing them to stay there, so they won't necesarily try to get away

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

Creating a semblance of order in their lives makes homeless people healthier?
Giving the appearance of being monitored makes homeless people healthier?
Keeping homeless people mildly inebriated instead of in part-time alcoholic withdrawl makes them healthier?
Any improvement whatsoever in homeless people's lives from a rock-bottom state makes them healthier?

Could be anything.

[giza.livejournal.com]

Agreed. More studies must be done to try and isolate which one of those things it is.

[gatcat.livejournal.com]

I shall be a humble guinea pig and move into a box immediately. Hell, the price is right.

[vesuvius.livejournal.com]

There are programs that give away food, clothes, places to stay, job oportunities, etc. Those don't seem to be fixing the problem.