Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems is a program at the George Washington Medical Center that is working with business leaders, policy makers, and concerned citizens to improve the availability of treatment for alcoholism.
“The human and economic consequences of alcohol problems are staggering on a national scale. They are the third leading cause of preventable death in America, they destroy millions of families, they rob millions of young people of their futures and they drain $186 billion from our economy every year. Yet few people know how much alcohol problems cost at the community or company level.”
One of the cool tools they have on their site is the Alcohol Cost Calculator which you can use to see the cost benefits of treatment when compared to the damage when it is not available. There are four calculators:
The Alcohol Cost Calculator for Business
The Alcohol Cost Calculator for Kids
The Alcohol Cost Calculator for Health Plans
The Alcohol Cost Calculator for Return on Investment
I like the thought that there is finally some serious effort and thought being put into the arenas of treatment and prevention of alcoholism and wish more was being done similar to this in the criminal justice system. Saving lives, time, and money should supercede a lust for stigmatization and draconian punishments in our society, but we obviously have a very long way to go before combatting addiction becomes a mainstream cause.
