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Club operation
Since the beginning of their work, Clubs of alcoholics
in treatment have gone through a number of stages, contemporary developments,
scientific ideas and personal reflections, but their basic conception never
changed. Their goal was to help families in trouble, through a family (systemic)
approach, a multi-family community of 2 to 12 families, to reach sobriety and a
change in behaviour and life style.
In the first stage, one year long abstinence was considered an optimum.
Later, experience showed that abstinence had to last much longer, even a life
time. Today, since Clubs of alcoholics in treatment are territorially organised
and are part of a territorial network of support for alcohol related problems,
Club membership is considered permanent or, as prof. Hudolin often said, “till
the flowers”.
On the territory covered by the Club, members can receive and give most in
the primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of alcohol related problems. That
was the community that supported them, and they feel obliged to repay it.
Researches carried out during the last ten years show that in areas were more
than 1% of the population was included in the programme, the whole community
went through gradual changes of behaviour and life style.
The Club of alcoholics in treatment is a multi-family community included in
its territorial community. The Club is self-conducted, self-reliant and
independent from any official or private organisation. When the Clubs were
founded in Croatia, they were registered as groups of citizens. Their purpose is
to change the behaviour and life style of families with difficulties.
Achieving sobriety of the whole family holds an important place, but this is
the easiest to achieve. It is much more important and difficult to bring about
changes in behaviour and life style, which is a long-term process.
There are no strict rules in the work of the Clubs, except some basics that
in any case belong to socially acceptable behaviour. They are: regular weekly
attendance at Clubs meetings, punctuality, no smoking at the meetings; a Club
not a selected group, and must accept anyone who feels the need to join; no one
can be rejected; when the thirteenth family joins, the Clubs has to split,
because a big Club cannot provide good mutual contacts and interaction for
member families; members shall not spread around information of a personal
character learnt in the Club. Anything else done in a Club is specific for that
particular Club, and is not a rule for all of them.
Anyone with a problem has to be able to present and discuss it in the Club.
Advice is not given, members share their own experience which are in fact
messages to other Club members from whom feedback is expected. Even the
servant-teacher shall not give advice.
The splitting-up initiates the self-reproduction, making it possible for new
families to join the Club. There is often very great resistance to such division
both by member families (they complain that they lose friends and so on) and by
the servant-teachers (they like to have a big Club).
The work of the Club is a continuous, long-lasting process in which only
members and Club workers can participate. That continuous and long-lasting
process cannot be sporadically joined by guests, observers, probationers,
trainees etc.
Servant-teachers from the same territory meet once a month to discuss their
experiences, problems, difficulties and anything else, which serves as a kind of
self-supervision.
The Club of alcoholics in treatment has its own structure. It is important
for every member to have a role and duty. If this important fact is forgotten,
interest in attending Club meetings may wane and the Club itself may fall apart.
The Club has elective offices of president, one or two vice-presidents,
secretary and treasurer. The term of office is six to twelve months, so that in
time all the members get a chance at performing all the duties. There are other
duties in the Club, as well: people for patronage (or friendly visits), people
responsible for communicating with other Clubs, people responsible for
communicating with the outside community etc.
A Club meeting lasts about one and a half hour. It is chaired by a
chairperson chosen at the previous meeting. The chair person is a Club member,
never the servant-teacher. A report is drawn-up by a reporting person chosen at
the previous meeting. The chairperson and the reporting person for the next
meeting are chosen at the beginning of a Club meeting.
The servant-teacher is a Club member whose role is to catalyse the process in
the Club and thus significantly contribute to the main goal, which is to change
the members behaviour and life style. The servant-teacher shall not manage the
Club, the Club meeting, nor give any advice. In order to become a
servant-teacher, a person has to attend a Sensibilization Course, and then
attend, from time to time, the various updating courses.
Our Courses of sensibilization for a social-ecological approach to alcohol
related problems, which is the primary and elementary education, last for a
week, and have a certain pace, similar to that in a play: the first part is the
plot and the second part its resolution. We have become accustomed to the
resistance that appears during the first 2-3 days, the negative reaction and
attacks on Course teachers; but after that, things gradually calm down and
attitudes to alcohol consumption, and the purpose of the Course do change.
The Courses usually end in a positive atmosphere. The participants do not
find the challenge threatening, only difficult to accept at the beginning,
because it requires everyone to think about his or her own approach to this kind
of problems, i.e. to think about him or herself, and not about someone else who
needs help.
Relapse holds an important place in the Club work. Usually one thinks only of
relapse in drinking alcohol. However, a more frequent form of relapse is
returning to the old way of behaviour or life style, often without drinking
alcohol. The alcoholic’s entire family may relapse. Other forms of relapse are
reflected in the behaviour of the Club servant, or the whole Club, as well as
the relapse of the entire territory on which the Club is founded. Relapse
is an acceptable situation in the Club, it should not be dramatised, but
everything should be done to resolve and eliminate it. Besides, one must non
forget that Clubs exist for the sake of those who relapse, because people who
have managed to solve the problem do not need the Club.
Some people seem to find the work methodology in the Clubs too simple, so
they try to introduce more or less sophisticated techniques, mainly from the
field of psychiatry, which usually have negative results in Club work. One
should not forget that Club work rest on a desire to secure activities and
harmonious interaction in a community which guarantee a pleasing life for all.
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Dal 10/04/2008
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