Established 2005 Registered Charity No. 1110656

Scottish Charity Register No. SC043760

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Booze to the door

May 24 2009
Graham House Hostel‘s daily deliveries of alcohol aim to manages service users‘ addictions A south London hostel is organising daily deliveries of alcohol straight to the door in a new strategy aimed at dealing with alcoholism. Graham House Hostel (pictured), Vauxhall, has been implementing the new strategy for the last few months. One service user told The Pavement that residents "make orders to the staff - 12 cans for him, 24 cans for him - and then a bloke in a van comes and drops it at the door". Staff at the hostel, which is run by Thames Reach, believe this direct-access approach is the most pragmatic way of dealing with residents with chronic alcohol addictions. Spokesperson Mike Nicholas told The Pavement that it was part of the charity's "programme of reduction", which manages service users' addictions by gradually reducing the strength and volume of the alcohol they are allowed. "Some of our residents at Graham House have the most extreme problems with alcohol - they're in their 30s and 40s but with the physical and mental capabilities of people in their 60s or 70s," he said. "By controlling their addictions within the hostel, we hope to be able to gradually rehabilitate our residents, help them manage their money, and prevent people from getting hurt through drinking alone on the street." Thames Reach has been putting pressure on national government for a number of years to ban the sale of so-called 'super-strength' lagers such as Special Brew and Tennent's Super. Figures published by the charity in 2005 suggested that 47 per cent of the people they worked with had an alcohol addiction, and up to 20 per cent had an addiction to a brand of super-strength lager. Although programmes such as Graham House's monitored 'alcohol reduction' strategy may help residents reduce their alcohol consumption, Thames Reach believes high numbers of people on the streets will continue to be at risk unless the government tackles the wider problem of the increased strength, low price and high availability of certain beers and ciders.
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