Alcohol Treatment in Medicine Hat, Alberta
General Situation
Medicine Hat is a unique small city whose demographic makeup differs from that of most other cities. Many other cities skew younger and more progressive, whereas Medicine Hat skews older and more conservative than most. This brings a host unique problems that other cities don't have to face.
Medicine Hat's conservative nature brings about difficulties when it comes to solving alcohol related problems with by alternative means. It also means that although they may not be faced with the typical youth issues that plague other cities they may be setting themselves up for a higher rate of alcohol abuse without knowing due to the smaller numbers off alcohol related problems from youth overall.
Teenage Drinking
Medicine Hat is in a precarious position. Their low drunk driving numbers are more likely a reflection of the demographics within than the execution of worthwhile programs. Medicine Hat's thousands of teens like most Albertan teens drink. This is a fact present everywhere throughout most of the Western world and without clear action could lead to a disaster.
Without a means of transportation beyond cars for most of the day teens drinking and driving becomes ever more likely. It's better to act sooner rather than later and solve the problem before it grows too large to handle.
Police enforcement
With Medicine Hat taking on new officers they now, more than ever, have the ability to crack down on teenage drunkenness and intoxicated driving. They're well trained (often ranking as top recruits in their class) and would be well served to face the problem head on.
Without exhausting many more resources they could decrease both the number of distracted and intoxicated drivers. Both of which put innocent people in danger and have fairly similar means of being spotted. Also with increasing joblessness the likelihood of alcohol involved domestic violence increases. Again it would be possible to prevent both further violence and alcohol abuse if they were being sought for in synchrony. In the end the police are the front line against when alcohol abuse crosses the line from simply personally destructive to being the fuel of crimes.
Alcohol Abuse Treatment
Where progress is being made is in Medicine Hat's going forward with the construction of a more convenient treatment facility. Treatment for alcohol abuse in Alberta is available for everyone as most of them are provincially funded. This money saving initiative would move patients out of expensive hospitals into the treatment facility. The potential downsides being that although a new center is being constructed it is unknown whether it will be large enough to serve the community as necessary or how many people will be turned away. The savings could potentially be all but gone if instead of being large enough to care for people as needed they still have spill over into the hospital.
On top of everything else is the low morale of the healthcare providers. Low morale from the practitioners results in lower quality work and fewer willing to do the work at all. The sluggish pace of progress in construction and implementation of new ideas isn't helping anything either. Again there is no solution the center may end up being built in vain. Though the majority agrees there is room for improvement there isn't a consensus on what steps must be taken to do so.
Alternative Solutions
Medicine Hat's biggest obstacle may be its staunch conservative base. Without a willingness to seek new avenues for treatment of alcohol abuse or alcohol fueled dangerous behavior there may be no solution. That makes it import to explore and find which techniques work for them.
Consider the recent decision to not maintain bike lines. It not only increases likelihood of drunk driving, but also sends the message that the things aren't going to change. The original effort was halfhearted to begin with. The lack of a connected network of lanes made it more of a novelty than useful means of transport.
Another potential solution would be to expand the hours and routes of public transportation. As it stands Medicine Hat's layout and lack of alternative means of transportation make driving a car a necessity. If it is possible to reduce that need it would be possible to reduce the rates of drivers driving while intoxicated. There can be no progress without a willingness to try new things.
