Hospital emergency departments estimate that 10 to 30% of their work is alcohol related. Each year between 7,000 and 22,000 alcohol-affected patients are treated at each of the country's three busiest emergency units - Auckland City, Middlemore and Christchurch hospitals. Jones and his colleagues (1995) estimated that alcohol-related lost productivity among the working population of New Zealand amounted to $57 million per year. Indirect costs include lost production resulting from premature death and illness, lost working efficiency and excess unemployment (ALAC and Ministry of Health 2001). This estimate includes direct costs such as hospital expenses, accident compensation payments and justice system costs. With respect to the New Zealand situation, the social costs of alcohol misuse have been estimated as being between $1.5 billion and $2.4 billion annually. Substance abuse results in enormous costs to the abuser, his or her family and the community.
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It is estimated that there are about 1 million heroin addicts and about 2.4 million crack and cocaine addicts in the United States (Holloway 1991). National statistics in the United States show that between 18,000 and 19,000 automobile fatalities each year can be traced to alcohol consumption (Brake 1994), and a disproportionate number of deaths from drowning, fires, violent crimes, and suicides are alcohol-related (Brake 1994, Rivers 1994). Some participants had also committed drug-related crimes and experienced accidents as a result of their addictions, which also affected their relationships with their families.Īlcohol and other drug misuse is an increasing social problem that contributes to the destruction of individuals, families and communities (see Rossow 2001, Vetere and Henley 2001). All participants and their families had suffered from various forms of family disruption, such as loss of custody of their children, loss of employment, marital breakdown, physical and psychological abuse, depression and ill health. The results show that the majority of participants had experienced painful and traumatic childhoods in their families of origin, which contributed to their subsequent addictive behaviour and which they felt had affected their current familial relationships. The findings are discussed in the context of a broad range of academic research on addiction and its effects on families. These interviews were analysed using a qualitative framework.
Individual in-depth interviews were undertaken with 12 participants who were residents and ex-residents in the Higher Ground Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Trust, Auckland, New Zealand.
Research has identified a strong connection between disrupted family relationships and alcohol and other drug addiction. Alcohol and other drug addiction, a societal problem that is steadily growing, contributes to the destruction of families and communities.
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