Thursday, October 25, 2007

Detox’ keeps drunks from dying

By Alec Luhn

With Halloween and University of Wisconsin Homecoming celebrations coming up this weekend, the Dane County Detox Center will have extra staff on duty to monitor intoxicated revelers.

The center, which admits patients voluntarily and anyone the police deem to be too drunk to care for themselves, will have six additional staffers on duty starting 3 p.m. Saturday to handle an expected influx of patrons.

All 29 beds in the facility will likely be full that night, mostly with partiers from State Street’s Freakfest event, according to center Director Melody Music-Twilla.

Intake numbers are always hard to predict, she said, but the combination of Freakfest and a home football game have staff prepared for the worst.

“Anybody who works here knows when home Badger games are,” said Dede Storberg, a nurse who has worked at the center for ten years. “It’s homecoming, so we know we’re going to be busy.”

Although the detox team is prepared for high numbers of intoxicated people from the State Street area and Camp Randall this weekend, the center has also been taking larger numbers of UW students this fall.

Between August 31 and Oct. 17, the University of Wisconsin Police Department brought 48 UW students to detox, according to department records.

That number has been increasing steadily since the UW Police started keeping records of detox conveyances in 2004, when 14 students were transported over the same period.

The number of students going to detox each school year has also risen, with 112 in 2006-07, compared to 52 in 2003-04. In addition, admissions to detox overall are up, especially among young females, according to Music-Twilla.

An upturn in students going to detox should not be taken lightly, stressed UW police officer Lt. Eric Holen.

"Detox is a very serious thing," Holen said. "This is not just people who are really drunk ... These people are very close to real danger," including sickness and death.

After behaviors including slurred speech, unsteady gait, odor, or a breathalyzer or blood alcohol test indicate drunkenness, police will determine whether a person is too intoxicated to care for him or herself. Even someone is incapacitated, officers will often try to find acquaintances they believe are able to look out for the person before they take him or her to detox.

"A lot of people think detox is punitive, but it's really the only safe place to take them," Holen said.

Anyone who’s admitted is required to stay at least 12 hours, see a substance abuse counselor, and blow 0.0% in a breathalyzer test before leaving. Since counselors are usually only available from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., stays can often last longer.

A trip to detox costs $365 for treatment, not including the drinking ticket most underage students receive.

Interim Assistant Dean of Students Tonya Schmidt, who oversees the UW code of conduct violations under which detox conveyances fall, attributed the increase of students in detox to the larger number of home football games so far this fall.

"It's the rally around the team, 'Let's drink as much as we can before we get in the stadium' mentality," Schmidt said.

This fall, UW Athletics has begun revoking football season tickets when a student goes to detox from the stadium, and the Office of the Dean of Students continues to contact parents whenever a student goes to detox, according to Schmidt.

But some public safety officials are concerned the higher numbers indicate increased binge drinking at the University.

"It's a lot of drinking and a lot of partying that's getting out of control," Music-Twilla said.

Despite police vigilance and increased public awareness about the dangers of overconsumption, the "problem is still there" and remains widely accepted, she said.

"The culture of drinking on campus has become more pervasive," agreed UWPD Officer Shane Driscoll, who compiled the detox records and also works home football games.

He pointed to the even larger numbers of students who recorded a blood-alcohol concentration of more than 0.16% -- twice the 0.8% that is evidence of intoxication under drunk-driving laws - in a breathalyzer test but didn't go to detox.

"All of them would have gone to a medical facility, had we not found someone to care of them," he said.

According to some officials and detox staff, greater awareness may also be heightening watchfulness over drunken behavior. Most people in detox end up there due to the concern of another community member, according to Storberg.

Recent University Health Services efforts to combat binge drinking through education have indeed raised awareness, so "detox conveyance might go up for that reason," said UHS Community Health Specialist Susan Pastor.

"Police may ask somebody to do a breathalyzer where, in the past, that person might not have been a problem," Pastor said.

Holen and Driscoll said police have not stepped up conveyance efforts and are not focusing on drunken behavior more than other criminal activity.

"We're not trying to take kids to detox; we're trying to keep behavior at a safe level," Driscoll said.

With enforcement of anti-binge drinking measures "down to a science" and downtown alcohol density plan addressing the environmental aspect of alcohol abuse, education remains the weak point of Madison's campaign to curtail alcohol problems, according to Joel Plant, the city’s first alcohol policy coordinator who now works as an assistant to the mayor.

"We're working on getting the norm out that there is a standard of behavior -- and puking out of your nose isn't part of it," Plant said.

Officials hope the upturn in detox admissions will help in the effort to diminish alcohol abuse.

"This increase is going to be a (chance) for people to learn more about the issue" of high-risk drinking, Pastor said.

The focus is to eventually reduce the need for detox, Plant said, although for now detox staff remain ready to accommodate the demand.

"Ending up in detox is not a bad thing," Music-Twilla said. "It probably saved your life."





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1 comment:

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