The hostel that gives alcohol to alcoholics

In the first project of its kind in Scotland, a hostel in Glasgow aims to stabilize alcoholics by giving them alcohol.

It’s 10:00 am and Peter gets his first “pour” of the day – an agreed amount of lager deemed sufficient to curb his binge cravings.

Peter is 60 and has been a chronic alcoholic since he was young.

He is one of 10 men in Glasgow’s Managed Alcohol Program (MAP), which is based on a model used in Canada that I attended three years ago.

It’s for the messiest of homeless alcoholics who’ve tried and failed traditional abstinence programs.

A measure of wine or beer is given to residents every hour or two to keep enough alcohol in their bloodstream to prevent a seizure, but not enough to get them drunk.

In addition, they get a home, stability and some structure, a chance to get involved with mental health services and to develop their interests.

The proposal was controversial for some, but it has now been running for 12 months.

For the past few months, we’ve had exclusive access to the pilot.

“I think I was an alcoholic when I was 16”

Peter says the MAP has helped him a lot

When we first go in with the camera in October 2022, one resident appears a little drunk and staggers from wall to wall.

There was an argument between a man who bought extra alcohol and another who is trying his best to cut down on his consumption.

Peter admits that he drank a lot. His best friend just died from an alcohol-related illness. He doesn’t want to die the same way, but for today he drowns his pain.

He says, “I think I was an alcoholic by the time I was 16 because I was having two bottles of wine and two bottles of Buckfast every night with my mom.” She bought it for him, he says.

When we come back two weeks later, Peter is better.

He went to the dentist for the first time in decades, started eating, and reconnected with his family after years of silence and shame.

He has music lessons every Monday. His voice – deep and hoarse – tells a story of its own.

I ask him where he would be if he wasn’t here.

“I would be dead,” he says. “Because I just kept going – buying drinks. That helped me a lot, this place.”

Now, eight months after entering the house, Peter is talking about getting his own apartment and a dog.

“My body can’t take much anymore”

Paul was asked to leave the project

Paul prepares lunch for himself and the other residents. Pork chops, mashed potatoes and vegetables. Eating hot meals together is one of the benefits of the program.

The 51-year-old says he has an appetite for the first time in decades.

He spent much of his childhood in the hospital because of a serious skin condition.

Paul says he’s had a drinking problem since he was a teenager. When referred to the MAP, he said he was consuming about 30 units a day — the equivalent of almost a bottle of vodka.

“I went to the police every day because I was drinking on the street,” he says. “I was picked up by the police every Friday or Saturday.

“I have to slow down. My body can’t take much anymore. This place opened my eyes to that.”

After lunch he gets his “pour” – a can of lager beer – placed in his room. He sips while sketching Glasgow’s famous statue of the Duke of Wellington with a traffic cone on his head.

“I’m a little bit happier, believe it or not, but when you come out of drunk after 20 or 30 years, your regrets come back, too,” he says. “You realize what a mess you’ve made of your life. And then the guilt comes.”

Paul says he is much more positive about his future.

But the very next day, staff say his drinking and behavior are out of control and he is being asked to leave the project.

bumps along the way

Project manager Peter McLachlan says the first year was a learning curve

For some, the MAP does not work. Paul and another man have already been told to leave the project and a third has left by mutual consent.

Manager Peter McLachlan says the first year has been a “learning curve” with “bumps” along the way.

“For some men, this may not be the place, it may not be the right treatment, they may not be ready for it at that particular time,” he says.

But those who are still on duty have significantly reduced their alcohol consumption, Mr. McLachlan says. They have started taking care of themselves, going to the dentist, optometrist and family doctor and significantly reducing their encounters with the police and paramedics.

Not every applicant is accepted. Blood tests, liver scans and psychological tests are done to see if the men are physically strong enough.

The economic argument

The project is funded by homeless charity Simon Community with support from the Scottish Government.

Not all supported the idea or methodology. Traditionally, alcohol rehabilitation has focused on detoxification.

But since the opening of the MAP, views have changed and there is already interest from other areas in Scotland, England and other European countries.

Karyn McCluskey, the head of Community Justice Scotland, was behind piloting the Canadian model here.

She analyzed the cost of emergency services by these men drinking in the streets before they entered the project and believes the cost of not having the MAP would be in “millions” of pounds.

“One of the men I looked at was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary by ambulance over 400 times over a period of two and a half years,” she told the BBC.

“That’s extortionate. I mean serious amounts of money. Probably millions.”

She says some people have a “visceral reaction” to the MAP, but that telling these men to stop hasn’t worked.

She says, “The tears of their children and families would have made them stop, but they can’t, so we have to try to give them less.”

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