Located in Lisbon, its human structure includes technical staff, recovered alcoholics in recovering stages, and also people who although may not suffer directly from the problem, are somehow touched by it.
The purpose for its creation was contribute to the fight against alcoholism, although not fighting the moderate use of alcoholic drinks. In this way, its activities are organized in the several stages of prevention (from primary to tertiary).

Prevention

The primary stage deals with the education of the population through the motive: "Moderate drinking helps you to live better" and is related to the promotion and practice of knowing how to drink. The word "Population" is meant either in general (through the media) or as identified groups, such as the workers in a company, the students in a school, the inhabitants of a village, etc.
One of the purposes of these information sessions is to clarify some of the myths in our society, such as "alcohol makes you strong, it feeds, warms up, kills the thirst, etc.”. It is necessary to fight these myths concerning the so-called benefits of alcohol. The mother that feeds her child with bread soaked in wine is convinced that it will make the child stronger, and she is doing her best out of her wrong beliefs.
This is one of the areas where S.A.A.P.'s priority is, because we consider these problems to be like an iceberg, and the alcoholics being its visible top portion. The underwater portion of this icebergs all of those who are drinking excessively, making it impossible for the top portion to disappear.
With the secondary stage, we provide a precocious diagnosis and immediate assistance and treatment. This is certainly one of the hardest stages for alcoholic drinkers especially when they refuse (until late in the evolution of the disease) to admit their own condition. The society we live in often discriminates, marginalizes the alcoholic. We tend to think it only happens to the other people, and the alcoholic is not seen as a sick person, but as an addicted that is always ready to drink and make trouble wherever he goes because that's what he really wants to do.
During the first interview, the technical staff of S.A.A.P. tries to motivate the person. All the external tension and stress which have led him to ask for help at S.A.A.P., has to be used in such a way that the patient him self must be the true of a change.
A diagnosis is produced, and when treatment becomes necessary, S.A.A.P. asks for co-operation from governmental or independent specialized institutions, mainly the psychiatric hospitals or the psychiatric services of the general hospitals.
In this way, we emphasize the role of the tertiary stage, which gives the support according to each patient, making use of all possible resources to help smother re-adaptation and trying to avoid a relapse.
All the therapeutic procedures are made according to each patient’s adaptation to society and it is the society itself that should provide and guarantee the recovering and re-adaptation of the patient in his social, professional and familiar environments.
Self-help therapeutic groups are the most very well succeeded forms in rehabilitation of alcohol dependants.
In S.A.A.P., these groups are led by two technicians, a psychologist and a social assistant who accepts treated and untreated alcoholics into their meetings, as well as those who are related or close to alcoholic people.
although group therapy offers a wide range of intervention areas, from the discussion of the reasons that led a person to stop drinking, to different strategies to keep abstinent, like the change of lifestyle, the planning of daily activities, how to interact with the environment and avoiding relapses, there are certain types of alcoholism that require individual psychotherapy attention, namely when alcoholism appears as a secondary problem.
the fact that, in the group, all kinds of people meet, having the same problem (although maybe in different stages makes them feel they are not alone in their suffering and in their feelings. This bond that unites them helps create a new identify, maybe even a new family feeling of standing up fro each other.