New Dutch Legislation and Preventive Coercive Home Health Care for Excessive Alcohol Consumers

Abstract

Excessive alcohol consumers are in need for effective and targeted thiamine interventions to prevent the development of Korsakoff's syndrome. Coercive home health care might be a solution to reach excessive alcohol consumers. In many parts of the world, an expansion is seen of more coercive community practices. Due to new legislation in the Netherlands, preventive coercive home health care is permitted. The objective of this article is twofold. Firstly, to describe this new Dutch legislation and secondly, to explore literature to identify themes that might contribute to less-intrusive coercive interventions at the excessive alcohol consumer's home. Four articles have been identified which concentrate on experiences regarding coercive home health care. Preventive coercive home health care might benefit from a stable and trusting relationship. For healthcare organizations, this means that they need to pay attention to the health and safety of their employees to prevent outflow. Keywords Preventive treatment . Alcoholism . Coercion . Home health care . Legislation . Therapeutic relationship Alcohol use is a significant global public health issue and takes a tremendous toll on society and the individual (Nace et al. 2007). More than 3 million people died as a result of harmful use of alcohol in 2016, according to a publication released in September 2018 by the World Health Organization (WHO). This represents 1 in 20 deaths. Overall, the harmful use of alcohol causes more than 5% of the global disease burden (WHO 2018). BThe overall burden of disease and injuries caused by the harmful use of alcohol is unacceptably high. Globally an