Outreach.
Committee for Co-operation with the Professional Community
IF YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL…
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WANT TO WORK WITH YOU.
Cooperation with the professional community is an objective of AA, and has been since our beginnings. A look at our history shows clearly that cooperation with professionals has been an integral part of the fellowship since our beginnings. Without the help of nonalcoholic professionals such as Dr. Silkworth, Sister Ignatia and the Reverend Sam Shoemaker AA might never have gotten off ground, or progress would have been much slower.
We are always seeking to strengthen and expand our communication with professionals, and we welcome your comments and suggestions. Your suggestions will help us to work more effectively with you in achieving our common purpose: TO HELP THE ALCOHOLIC WHO STILL SUFFERS.Cooperating with nonalcoholic professionals is an effective way for AA to carry the message to the sick alcoholic. Professionals often meet the alcoholic in places where AA is not present. Through them alcoholics may be reached who might otherwise never find the AA program, or they may be reached sooner with the help of informed non-alcoholic professionals. AA has always valued friends in all professional fields. These associations have been mutually beneficial and completely in keeping with the AA Traditions.
A professional can be a family doctor or other health care professional, a member of the clergy, law enforcement or court official, an educator, a social worker, a counselor on alcoholism or other fields, or anyone who deals with problem drinkers in the course of their work. Many of these people often encounter the suffering alcoholic, and in spite of public awareness, many of them simply do not know what to do with a drunk. We also work with students attending professional schools and universities.A RESOURCE FOR THE HELPING PROFESSIONAL
Professionals who work with alcoholics share a common purpose with Alcoholics Anonymous: To help the alcoholic stop drinking and lead a healthy, productive life.
AA is a nonprofit, self-supporting, entirely independent, self-help fellowship – “not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution.”
Yet AA is in a position to serve as a resource to you through its policy of “cooperation but not affiliation” with the professional community.
We can serve as a resource of personal experience with alcoholics as an ongoing support system for recovering alcoholics.
HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS
AA’s primary purpose, as stated in our preamble, is “to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.”
The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees; we are self-supporting through our own contributions.
MEETINGS
At the heart of the program are its meetings, which are conducted autonomously by AA groups in cities and towns throughout the world. Anyone may attend open meetings of AA. Meetings usually consist of talks by one or more speakers who share impressions of their past illness and their present recovery in AA. Some open meetings – to which helping professionals, the media and others are invited – are held for the specific purpose of informing the non-alcoholic public about AA. Closed meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous are for alcoholics only. Alcoholics recovering in AA generally attend several meetings each week.
ANONYMITY
Anonymity helps the fellowship to govern itself by principles rather than personalities; by attraction and seldom, if ever, upon promotion. Great modesty and humility are needed by every AA member for his own permanent recovery. If these virtues are such vital needs to the individual, so must they be to AA as a whole. This principle of anonymity before the general public can, if we take it seriously enough, guarantee the AA movement this sterling attributes forever. We openly share our program of recovery, but not the names of the individuals in it. AA members usually use their first names only in open and public meetings as well as in the public media. In print or on television silhouettes are used and not the full picture.
WHAT A.A. DOES NOT DO
AA does not keep attendance records or case histories. We do not engage in or sponsor research. We do not make medical diagnoses or dispense medicines or give psychiatric advice. AA does not provide drying-out or nursing services or sponsor halfway houses. We do not affiliate with “councils” or social agencies although AA members, groups and service officers do cooperate with them. AA does not offer religious services. We do not provide housing, food, clothing, jobs, money or other social services. AA does not provide domestic or vocational counseling. We do not provide letters of reference to parole boards, lawyers, court officials or social agencies.
REFERRALS FROM COURT AND TREATMENT FACILITIES
Today numerous AA members come to us from court programs and treatment facilities. Some arrive voluntarily, others do not. AA however does not discriminate against any prospective member. Who made the referral to AA is not what interests us – it is the problem drinker who elicits our concern.
PROOF OF ATTENDANCE AT AA MEETINGS
Sometimes a court asks for proof of attendance at AA meetings. Some groups, with the consent of the prospective member, have the AA group secretary sign or initial a slip that has been furnished by the court together with a self-addressed court envelope. The referred person supplies identification and mails the slip back to the court as proof of attendance. Other groups cooperate in different ways. There is no set procedure. The nature and extent of any group’s involvement in this process is entirely up to the individual group.
PROBLEMS OTHER THAN ALCOHOL
Many treatment facilities combine alcohol and drug addiction rehabilitation under “substance abuse” or “chemical dependency” programs. Alcoholics and non-alcoholics are introduced to AA and encouraged to attend meetings on the “outside” when they leave. However, while anyone is welcome to attend open meetings, only persons with a drinking problem may participate in closed meetings or become AA members. Dually or multiple addicted persons are asked to seek AA membership only if one of their addictions is to alcohol.
SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE
AA’s source of strength lies in our singleness of purpose. Consequently, while we welcome the opportunity to share our principles and methods with other self-help groups, only they can provide the essential ingredient for success, their common bond.
HOW TO MAKE REFERRALS TO AA
Alcoholics Anonymous is listed in the telephone directory. (Some professionals call AA while the person is in the office, thus giving the individual an immediate opportunity to reach out for help.) The person will then be put into contact with a member of an AA group in the area or close to where she or he is resident. _________________________________________________________
WE, THE COMMITTEE FOR COOPERATION WITH THE PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WESTERN THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION.
If you are a professional...
Alcoholics anonymous wants to work with you.
Doctor | Jurist | Clergyman | Psychologist | Personnel Administrator | Armed forces Commander | Corrections Officer | Nurse | Counselor | Educator | Management Consultant | Social Worker - or any other professional person who works with alcoholics.
The personal, subjective experience of alcoholism is, of course, something only an alcoholic can share with another alcoholic. We have found that trying to help another alcoholic - in our unique but often effective way - is good for us, whether or not the alcoholic we try to help uses what we offer. For this reason. A.A. groups and offices attempt to concentrate primarily on this person-to-person service, without getting involved in any extraneous enterprise, no matter how worthwhile.
As a result, Alcoholics Anonymous has had 69 years of trial-and-error experience, face-to-face, with literally more than a million alcoholics. This mass of intensive firsthand experience with all kinds of problem drinkers, in all phases of both illness and recovery, is unparalleled as far as we know.
AA is glad to share it freely with any professional person or any alcoholic who wants it.
What is the best way to get AA help for a problem drinker?
A telephone call to AA will bring prompt help or information. In most communities, Alcoholics Anonymous is listed in the telephone directory.
Services that our "committee for co-operation with the professional community" (CPC committee) offers include:
- Getting an AA member immediately to talk to any problem drinker (willing to listen), to take the patient or client to AA meetings, and to answer questions. Any interested person can attend an open AA meeting. Closed meetings are for alcoholics only.
- Providing the same sort of A.A. "sponsorship" promptly for the alcoholic upon release from correctional or treatment facilities.
- Giving information about where and when local A.A. groups meet.
- Arranging, upon request, to conduct A.A. meetings within Institutional / Correctional / Treatment facilities, or nearly anywhere.
- Furnishing A.A. guest speakers for interested organizations, and co-operating with writers and communications media desiring information.
By far the best way to refer an alcoholic to A.A. is to take him or her to an A.A. meeting. Establishing direct telephone contact between the alcoholic and A.A. while the client or patient is with you is also effective. Some professionals who regularly make use of A.A. services began by getting to know A.A. members personally and by attending open A.A. meetings.
Please contact our CENTRAL OFFICE on (021) 418-0908 or email aawestcape@telkomsa.net and ask to be put in touch with someone from the CPC committee.