Fighting Firewater Fictions : : Moving Beyond the Disease Model of Alcoholism in First Nations / / Richard W. Thatcher.

• VerfasserIn: Thatcher, Richard W.,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2018]; ©2004
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (270 p.)

In Fighting Firewater Fictions, Richard W. Thatcher describes and explains the emergence and perpetuation of the 'firewater complex' - the cultural construct of an informally sanctioned, destructive, binge-drinking norm in First Nations reserve communities.The complex has reified alcoholism as an inevitability in the First Nations - an approach that has resulted in essential aspects of collective and personal responsibility being vacated in favour of therapeutic interventions assisted by social personnel of questionable expertise. This substitution has had the effect of relieving government policy-makers and reserve leadership from accountability for problematic community development strategies that have long since outgrown their support capacities.Thatcher argues that the conditions that give rise to extraordinary alcohol abuse rates in First Nations are largely traceable to the hopelessness associated with multi-generational unemployment. Fighting Firewater Fictions calls for community re-organization around a band development policy that looks beyond the reserve, and outlines a strategy that shifts the current, exclusive emphasis on the needs of alcoholics towards the neglected counselling and non-residential service needs of potential or actual binge-drinkers. This is essential reading for anybody working in, or seeking to understand, aboriginal communities that are experiencing problems with alcoholism.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- 1. Introduction -- Part One: Deconstructing the Firewater Complex -- 2. 'More Dry, More Wet': Drinking as Pastime and Problem in First Nations -- 3. Alcohol Abuse: A Social Problem Inviting Various Control Strategies -- 4. Alcoholism as Pathology: The Reasoning and Allure of the Disease Perspective -- 5. Challenges to the Disease Model as an Explanation of Problem Drinking -- 6. An Unhealthy Relationship: The Profession of Medicine and Alcohol Abuse Treatment -- 7. From Myth to Reification: The Firewater Complex -- 8. Violence and the Firewater Complex -- 9. Explanations of Problem Drinking in First Nations That Fall 'Outside the Pathology Box' -- 10. The Genesis of Alcohol Abuse Norms in First Nation Reserve Communities: An Explanatory Outline -- 11. Governmental and Community Reinforcement of the Firewater Complex -- Part Two: Rebuilding and Renovating Alcohol Prevention Strategies in First Nations -- 12. An Effective Alcohol Abuse Service System for First Nations: Philosophical Foundations -- 13. Structural Change: Targeting the 'Root System' of Problem Drinking on Reserves -- 14. Effective Prevention Programming Directly Targeting Alcohol Abuse -- 15. Principles and Issues in Direct Intervention: An Overview -- 16. Effective Therapies for Problem Drinkers and Alcohol-Dependent Clients -- 17. Conclusion -- References -- Index