Since A.A.'s co-founders first stayed sober by carrying the A.A. message
into hospitals, many other alcoholics have discovered the great value to
their own sobriety of working with suffering alcoholics in treatment
facilities. In 1934, Bill W. kept trying to help drunks in Towns Hospital in
New York City. None of them seemed interested at that time, but Bill stayed
sober. Dr. Bob worked with thousands of alcoholics at St. Thomas Hospital in
Akron, Ohio. In 1939, Rockland State Hospital, a New York mental
institution, was the site of one of our first A.A. hospital groups.
Today many A.A. meetings take place in treatment facilities all over the world.
Twelfth Stepping and sponsoring other alcoholics - where they are-has long
been one of the most important and satisfying ways of keeping ourselves
sober.
Services to treatment facilities used to be combined with corrections
facilities under the title Institutions Committee. In 1977 the General
Service Conference voted to dissolve its Institutions Committee and form two
new committees, one on correctional facilities and one on treatment
facilities. For more information on A.A.'s work in hospitals and treatment
centers, see the book Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age.
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