1. St. Vincent's Helping Serial Inebriates in San Diego
   By Martha Lepore
2. Community-Based Organizations Profit from St. Vincent's Program
   By Michael Risucci
3. Border Collies Herd Sheep in Campo Competition
   By Patty Lawrence
4. A ‘Light’ for ALL
   By Michael Wall - Director of Planned Giving

St. Vincent's Helping Serial Inebriates in San Diego
By Martha Lepore

A person collapses on the sidewalk and paramedics respond to the 911 call.

The scene repeats itself all too often in downtown San Diego among homeless people with chronic alcohol problems.

“These people are at the center of the homeless population we serve,” says Father Joe Carroll, president of St. Vincent de Paul Village. “That’s why we’ve joined San Diego’s Serial Inebriate Program (SIP), which addresses the needs of this group.”

Begun as a “problem-based policing” project in 2000 by Officer John Liening and Sargent Richard Schnell of the San Diego Police Department, SIP offers chronically intoxicated individuals a way out of the crisis-arrest-jail-discharge cycle.

“Someone who is intoxicated in public five or more times a month is arrested as a chronic serial inebriate,” says Liening. “Through SIP, we give those individuals picked up for public drunkenness or in medical crisis a chance to enter a recovery program rather than going to jail or being released to the streets.”

The SIP concept had one weak link: the lack of a single, comprehensive place for serial inebriates to go consistently for outpatient medical and psychiatric care.

uncilman Michael Zucchet.

In addition to offering hope to those directly involved, SIP saves taxpayers millions of dollars in reduced costs for emergency medical responders to this group of homeless people. It does, however, require a larger budget for St. Vincent’s Family Health Center.

“We are seeking funding sources to make our participation successful,” says Father Joe. “We have an anonymous donor who will match contributions to this program for the next two, possibly three years. We expect the costs to be $400,000 annually. With the match, we need to raise $200,000 each year.”

For more information on the SIP services at St. Vincent’s, please contact

Clinic Program Manager Teresa Simms at 619.233.8500, ext. 1400 or at Teresa.Simms@neighbor.org.  To contribute, contact Father Joe’s office: 619.446.2100. n

Serial Inebriate Program (SIP) Collaborators

Officer John Liening
SGT Richard Schnell
San Diego Police Department

James Dunford, M.D.
UCSD Department of Emergency Medicine
Medical Director, City of San Diego
Emergency Medical Services

Casey Gwinn, Esquire
Joan Dawson, Esquire
San Diego City Attorney’s Office
Office of the Public Defender

Ms. Sharon Johnson
City of San Diego Homeless Services