The man behind the scenes at Hanmer

Press, 26 April 1979, Page 21

The man behind the scenes at Hanmer

A benign Scot, Dr Robert Crawford, is the man behind the scenes at Queen Mary Hospital. The medical superintendent of the hospital since the early 19705, he holds the complex structure of this national alcoholism treatment unit together — by working in the background.

He is acutely aware that the success of the treatment programme is because it has grown around people and not concepts. Dr Crawford and his wife Jan, who is also a doctor, revel in the rural background of Hanmer Springs. His deceptively boyish spontaneity makes him as much at home with his two young sons, Alistair and Geoffrey, as with top health officials. Robert Crawford does not suffer fools gladly, but he is always open to new ideas in a health system which is continually under seige.

Affection comes easy to Robert Crawford: it gives him an easy entree to the personal problems which confront people on all levels of life. Like most Scots, his reverence for knowledge takes precedence. This gives him a flexibility perhaps denied to many other people in his position. His love of old sports cars, the art of printing, and his wife and family, jostle for position in his new role of one of the innovators in the treatment of alcholoism. His incisive knowledge of other people gives him a trump card in dealing with the convoluted course of alcoholism.

Well aware of the important part that the hospital must play in the fledgling national treatment system for alcoholism, he is also only too well aware of how close the hospital came to being closed down and used as a

detention centre. In stark contrast to many other people in simlar posts, Robert Crawford also has a refreshingly open approach to public relations. He has no cause to “sell” the hospital, but at the same time his approach to its work ensures greater public knowledge of the problems of alcoholism. Many other medical chiefs who run for cover behind the anonymity of petty bureaucracy could well take a lesson from Robert Crawford’s openess.

His determination to leave no stone unturned to help persons who choose to drag themselves out of the cocoon of alcohol abuse ensures his voice is heard. His knowledge and guidance will be vital if the self-seeking power politics and empire building of some health planners is to be

countered. What matters to Robert Crawford is the healthy functioning of people and not whether treatment programmes match some convenient paper requirement. As one of a strong group of professionals who have put Canterbury on the map as a leader in the treatment of alcohol abuse, Dr Crawford’s support for the influence of Alcoholics Anonymous is important. Not that he is a starry-eyed optimist about A.A. He is sure, however, that new types of A.A. groups, such as those designed to meet the needs of “non-spiritual” people, will develop.

Dr Crawford believes that there are many people with alcohol problems who are not addicted. How to handle emotions must take a greater part in the country’s education system if young people are to cope

with stress. Often, it is this group which turn to alcohol as a crutch. ->

As one of the team which has helped to put into practice the farsighted approach of the North Canterbury Hospital Board to. alcohol abuse, Dr Crawford is confident that the numbers of people seeking help will increase.

“It is becoming increasingly easier to find the people with problems who must be told that help is available. There is no use pussy-footing about this problem. It is causing this country to waste enormous amounts of human potential. We can ill afford that.

“More and more people are going to be picked up through ordinary hospitalisation, and also through the work of the alcohol assessment centre.”

Inevitably, increases in the number of people seeking help will put more pressure on Queen Mary Hospital, Dr Crawford

says. “We have to make therapy accessible. That will mean more staff.” One area which Dr Crawford considers must be extended at the hospital is assistance for people who have learning problems. Many young people who come to the hospital cannot read and this contributes to their over-all emotional problems. Early intervention and early assessment of those with alcohol problems has lowered the average age of patients from 45 years of age in 1974 to 35 years of age last year. “This increasing number of young people will mean that new approaches, such as an ‘Outward Bound’ type course, must be set up to teach them emotional independence. So many young people are emotional cripples; it is this fact that has contributed to their alcohol problems.”