Alcohol and Homlessness article

Alcohol and Homlessness

By Stefanie Kranjec 2 hours, 46 minutes ago

TORONTO (Reuters) - Giving homeless alcoholics a regular supply of booze may improve their health and their behavior, the Canadian Medical Association Journal said in a study published on Tuesday.
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.

"Once we give a 'small amount' of alcohol and stabilize the addiction, we are able to provide health services that lead to a reduction in the unnecessary health services they were getting before," said Dr. Jeff Turnbull, one of the authors of the report.
"The alcohol gets them in, builds the trust and then we have the opportunity to treat other medical diseases... It's about improving the quality of life."
Three of the 17 participants died during the program, succumbing to alcohol-related illnesses that might have killed them anyway, the study said.

The report showed that participants in the program drank less than they did before signing up, and their sleep, hygiene, nutrition and health levels all improved.
The per capita cost of around C$771 ($660) a month was partially offset by monthly savings of C$96 a month in emergency services, C$150 in hospital care and C$201 in police services per person.

Turnbull said some of the people enrolled in the program had stopped drinking altogether, although that was not an option for many of the participants.
"We agree 100 percent that abstinence is the most appropriate route," he said. "But in this subset of people where abstinence has failed, there is still a need to provide care."

posted Wednesday, 4 January 2006


Rock musician, family slain in Virginia

By Chris Morris Tue Jan 3, 9:55 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Bryan Harvey, singer-guitarist for the two-man '80s rock band House of Freaks, was found dead with his wife and two children in the family's Richmond, Va., home over the weekend.
Harvey, 49, his wife Kathryn, 39, and their children, Stella, 9, and Ruby, 4, were found Sunday in the basement of their burning home. A Richmond Police Department spokeswoman said the bodies were bound but added that no cause of death was being released. Local news reports said the victims' throats were cut.
Former House of Freaks drummer Johnny Hott arrived at the Harvey home to attend an afternoon New Year's Day party and discovered it ablaze; firefighters summoned to the scene discovered the bodies.

The police spokeswoman said there were no suspects in the case.
In the mid-'80s, Richmond natives Bryan Harvey and Hott moved to Los Angeles, where their group House of Freaks made an immediate mark on the club scene. Some credit the band's dynamic, melodic attack with setting the template for such later two-piece units as the White Stripes.
The group recorded two albums and an EP for Rhino Records. Its lone major-label set, for Giant in 1991, featured an expanded lineup that included fellow Virginian Stephen McCarthy of the Long Ryders and Bob Rupe of the Silos.

Harvey, Hott, McCarthy, Rupe and ex-Dream Syndicate singer-guitarist Steve Wynn formed the side project Gutterball, which released three early-'90s albums. House of Freaks, which moved back to Virginia in the late '80s, disbanded in 1995 after cutting a final indie-label set.
On New Year's Eve, Harvey played a Richmond date with his band NrG Krysys.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

posted Wednesday, 4 January 2006