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Data are presented on patients treated by all the Alcoholism Treatment Units (ATUs) in Britain during the year. The data include patient numbers for the different facilities that were provided (in-patient, detoxification, out-patient and day-patient); the percentage of female patients; the average ages of all patients; the length of both formal programmes and of in-patient stay; decision-making procedures for both staff and patients; and pathways to treatment and types and combinations of treatment settings. The final section of the paper describes implications in relation to the specialised and non-specialised responses to alcoholism, to diversity between ATU and to research and policy.

Alcoholism treatment units (ATUs) appear as the major institutional treatment system for alcoholics within the National Health Service. This paper is the first of a series of papers to report the results of a national survey on ATUs. It examines the varied treatment activities which are carried out in the institutional setting. Although the policies of many ATUs are based on a combination of group theory and eclecticism, there is a diversity of proceedings and treatment objectives. Future treatment provisions and their evaluation should consider the full range of influences that derive from patient characteristics and from institutional settings.

This paper describes what might be called the 'demographic characteristics' of alcohol treatment units, which form the major institutional treatment system for alcoholics within the National Health Service. Data are provided regarding the time of establishment, physical structure and location, bed numbers, staffing patterns, and administrative changes. The information provides a basis for monitoring future developments.