Services that Manage the Care Needs of Drunk - Scottish Government

generally poorer. The difficulty in identifying relevant literature from North
America may be partly due to the names given to these services in the US and
Canada. There, sobering-up facilities are often referred to as “detoxification
centres” (among other things), and it would appear that some North American
sobering centres are located within detoxification services that provide longerterm
treatment for problem drug or alcohol use. However, a search of the
literature for “detoxification centre” identified hundreds of articles, the vast
majority of which had nothing whatsoever to do with sobering-up services.
1.18 Because of the differences in the quality of the literature, this report has been
structured to present the data on a geographical basis, with the data from
Australia presented first. Each chapter will begin with a brief description of the
literature used to inform the findings in that chapter, and then will go on to
present the findings themselves. The findings have been presented in a way
which addresses the main issues identified by the Macdonald review
undertaken in 2004.
Structure of this report
1.19 Chapter 2 provides an in-depth description of sobering-up services in Australia
and considers some of the outcomes of those services. This information is
taken largely from published research studies, government reports and
evaluations.
1.20 Chapter 3 provides a description of sobering-up services in North America.
The North American literature was less robust.
1.21 Chapter 4 provides details of other interventions that have been used around
the world to meet the immediate care needs of drunk and incapable people.
These include transportation services, night patrols and the provision of
medical care to detainees in police custody.
1.22 Finally, Chapter 5 identifies what Scotland can learn about the provision of
services for drunk and incapable people in other parts of the world, and what
further issues need to be addressed in order to meet the needs of this
population.
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