Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting Experience - Essay Example

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) represents an organization founded in the year 1935. The founders are Dr. Bob Smith and Mr. Bill Wilson (Wilcox, 1998). The organization was initially based in Akron, Ohio. The main purpose of AA entails staying sober and assisting alcoholics to achieve sobriety. The founding members of AA developed the twelve-step program for character and also spiritual fulfillment.

The twelve traditions illustrate that individual or group members should remain anonymous to the media under the public domain, assist other alcoholics, and minimize affiliations with other different organizations. The twelve traditions also explain that representatives of AA must avoid coercive hierarchies or dogmas (Bill, 2002).

AA, however, holds no authority on medical issues of alcoholism. But it is viewed as a proponent of the disease theory of alcoholism. AA has successfully ensured that several alcoholics achieve sobriety. American Psychiatrists Association recommends treatment programs in liaison with AA’s program, for chronic alcoholics (Wilcox, 1998). Records of AA indicate that approximately 36% of alcoholics continuously participate in AA meetings, a year after the initial meeting.

The cost of health care services offered by AA is minimal. This is because it is a program mainly supported by volunteers, and the services offered are free. This is in contrast to other alcoholism treatments like; psychotherapy, inpatient treatment, cognitive-based therapy, and drug therapy. Healthcare cost studies have shown that institutional application of the twelve-step therapy by encouraging AA participation reduces the costs of healthcare by 45% (Peele, 2009).

AA has built relationships with other institutions. AA partners with hospitals in the provision of treatment facilities. In 1934, Bill Wilson partnered with Towns Hospital located in New York City to assist alcoholics admitted to the hospital. In 1939, Rockland State Hospital, a mental health institution, partnered with the AA hospital teams (Bill, 2002). In Canada and the United States, AA meetings are conducted in prisons and other correctional institutions.