Screening and Brief Alcohol Interventions: Money, Power and Equality

Mette Irmgard Snertingdal

Evaluation of a brief intervention training program

The Norwegian health authorities practice a zero tolerance to alcohol during pregnancy.

Control from the inside or the outside?”Society cannot exist

unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without” (Edmund Burk 1791)

The questions are:

What types of governance strategies does brief alcohol interventions such as MI represent?

And what are the social consequences of this governance strategy?

Medicalization:

“Defines behavior as a medical problem or illness and mandating or licensing the medical profession to provide some type of treatment for it.” (Conrad 1975: 12 )

Governmentality:

is a combination of the words govern and mentality, and is frequently defined as the “art of government” or governing.

General versus individual social control measures.

Alcohol policies primary importance “should be attached to general social control measures rather than to selected subgroups of the population which often, on very flimsy grounds, are labeled alcoholics” (Bruun, 1971, p. 36).

MI “Honor the person’s autonomy, draw forth the inherent desire to change, and take a collaborative—rather than confrontational—

approach.” Bill Miller

The four corner stones of MI

Empathy Develop discrepancy Roll with resistance Support self -

efficacy

What type of power is at work here?

What type of social cotrol is at work here?

«Self control from the inside or control by another person from the outside?»

GovernmentalityTechnologies of power

are the resources used to help develop good behavior with the idea of creating positive attitudes and attributes while attempting to avoid negative ones.

Technologies of self revolve around the capacity of individuals to control and therefore govern themselves.

Consequences?

«Blurs the line between statly power and individual power»

Consequences?«assumpsjons of moral neutrality, domination by experts, individualization of social problems, depoliticization of behavior, dislocation of responsibilities, using powerful medical technologies»

Consequences?«Individualization

refers to a process by which individuals increasingly became the cause and are held accountable for their successes and their failures»

Consequences? Stigmatization and the creation of guilt?

Question.

Does pregnant females whom drink a glass of wine every Friday afternoon with their husband really need therapy?

Thank you very much

for your attetion!