Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
The British Government has an excellent website but if you type "Alcoholics Anonymous" into their search engine you get no relevant results -- just reports about domestic violence, crime, victims and fraud (presumably alcoholism was the common factor in all these cases).
I'm not surprised by this -- ever since working for Castle Craig rehab clinic I've known the NHS doesn't officially encourage AA and other self-help groups that help people recover from addiction. Most psychologists, GPs and psychiatrists seem to take a rational approach that can't accept the spiritual element of the 12-steps, and as a result the whole movement tends to be dismissed.
Gradually things are changing. Public Health England, an NHS policy making body that has the mission to "protect and improve the nation's health", issued a briefing document at the end of last year which encourages GPs to make use of "mutual aid" groups like AA.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/rupert-wolfemurray/nhs-endorses-aa-after-80-years_b_4822675.html
I'm not surprised by this -- ever since working for Castle Craig rehab clinic I've known the NHS doesn't officially encourage AA and other self-help groups that help people recover from addiction. Most psychologists, GPs and psychiatrists seem to take a rational approach that can't accept the spiritual element of the 12-steps, and as a result the whole movement tends to be dismissed.
Gradually things are changing. Public Health England, an NHS policy making body that has the mission to "protect and improve the nation's health", issued a briefing document at the end of last year which encourages GPs to make use of "mutual aid" groups like AA.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/rupert-wolfemurray/nhs-endorses-aa-after-80-years_b_4822675.html