In bid to help ‘problematic’ female drinkers, North Goa dist hosp looks to have spl ward

Panaji: The Addiction Treatment Facility (ATF) at the North Goa district hospital, which operates under the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), is proposing a ward for women who suffer from alcohol use disorders.
Though the proportion of women alcoholics seeking help is lesser in the state, medical officer at the ATF, Dr Priyanka Sahasrabhojanee, said, “Goa is one of the states where more women are into drinking as compared to the national average. The issue of problematic drinking needs to be addressed.”
In January this year, the ATF opened a refurbished 10-bed ward for treating male addicts and the facility is looking to open another on the same lines for female addicts. At present, the few women who seek help are being admitted to the hospital’s medicine ward.
There has to be a ward for female patients, since, for women, addiction is never a simple problem, Sahasrabhojanee said.
“Unlike men, women often have additional problems. Some are from broken families, some were trafficked or have undergone abuse. Their problem is beyond addiction and they need help,” she said.
The female patients who are being trafficked won’t tell us this, but we know, Sahasrabhojanee said. “Some may have started drinking or doing drugs to numb their senses. Then it is a vicious circle and getting them out of it is difficult.” The issue, she said, is not that fewer women seek help, it is the lack of awareness. They will come forward once there is enough awareness, she added.
“If a separate ward is set up for female patients, there will be patients.”
The ATF also plans to start a research on the overall drinking problem in the state.
A member of the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group said that fewer women approach them for help due to the attached stigma. Those who have enrolled for help, he said, attend online meetings, which were started after the pandemic began, though offline sessions are held across the state.