OCR Text |
Show Leaders call attention to seriousness of alcoholism has grown since to assume the ardous task of providing information, in-formation, education, recovery and research on alcoholism and problems. The Foundation accomplish-' es this task through a variety of ways, Dr. Van Sant stated. Newsletter to those interested enough to join is one means of disseminating information, antother is the annual School on Alcoholism and tit her Drug, 1) e p e n deneies co-sponsored I each year by the University of Utah. Help to the alcoholic Is provided pro-vided through a series of five Utah recorded a 66 percent increase in the number of alcoholics al-coholics during the past year, according to Dr. Kimball S. Van Sant, executive secretary of the Utah Alcoholism Found-atlon. Found-atlon. "That should be sufficient to declare a state emergency," hp suggested. "If Governor land alcoholism is a spring-I spring-I board to many other diseases; (37 percent of welfare recipients are alcohol oriented, they point out. Reports not complete In regard to the highway problems with drinking and driving, Dr Van Sunt nninr Recovery Centers within tlie state. The Recovery Center for Southern Utah is located at 237 South 3(H) West in Cedar City and serves a seven county area. Southwest Section of State Counties involved in the Southern Utah Center include Kane, Washington. Iron, Garfield, Gar-field, Reaver, Piute and Millard. Mil-lard. The facilities here are set up on a nine bed basis and recent rennovation has brought the facility to meet all the standards prescribed by the Foundation and by various organizations such as the fire department, Utah Health Department. Through involvement of the citizens, both those who have a problem with alcohol and those who simply are concerned concern-ed about the problem much can be accomplished. Dr. Van Sant suggests. "We must get this involv-ment, involv-ment, this concern over the nation's number three disease, dis-ease, to be effective and helpful. help-ful. By doing so the alcoholics can rediscover a new life, and society can redeem the value of these people and their contributions," con-tributions," he concluded. if I J) pi P4:r 4? il 1 1 if liiil in iiiiiiiini wmm Rampton were to discover a 66 percent increase in Chicken Pox in the state, I'm sure that an emergency would be declared de-clared and an all out effort would be made to correct the situation," he continued. Not so with alcoholism, despite des-pite the fact that alcoholism is probably the most serious illness in our nation today. "We must make the public aware of the problems of alcoholism," al-coholism," Dr. Van Sant suggests. sug-gests. Visit in area The secretary of the UAF along with Richard D. Elefson executive secretary of the Utah Committee on Alcoholism were recently in southern Utah in connection with an appointment appoint-ment of W. S. "Bill" Farley as director of the Southern Utah Alcoholism Recovery Center operated in Cedar City by the Foundation. Concerned citizen, Dr. Van Sant and Elefson, revealed other statistics relative to alcoholism. alco-holism. At least one out of every 10 social drinkers will become alcoholics; 55 percent of all highway accidents are caused by drinking; 47 percent of all patients at the state hospital are alcohol oriented out that the news media Is not, in his opinion, fulfilling their full responsibility in that they many times fail to mention men-tion what caused the accident, rather than the accident itself. He suggests that the man drinking caused him to pull out in front of the on-coming vehicle, but the report simply says a head on collision; a car rolls over owing to the driver sleeping at the wheel, but fails to mention that the driver driv-er became drousy owing to the alcohol that he has taken into his system. "We must awaken people to the seriousness of the problem, prob-lem, they suggest. The economic eco-nomic factors alone are staggering, stag-gering, they point out. Realistically Realist-ically the alcoholic incurs a $650 debt on the public each year. That multiplied by the number of alcoholics in any given area, results in a staggering stag-gering cost factor that can't be Ignored. A means of involvement One way of Involving people is through the Utah Alcoholism Alcohol-ism Foundation, a non-profit corporation serving as Utah's voluntary agency on alcoholism. alcohol-ism. It was founded by a small group of citizens in 1946 and RECOVERY CENTER .Southern Utah Recovery Center, operated by the Utah Alcoholism Foundation, is one of five in the state of Utah. The facility fa-cility has recently been rennovated, It is designed for a nine bed capacity. |