A good friend of mine (& a very good engineer during the years that I employed him) lost a battle to/with the bottle & passed away Xmas day last year, we all did what we could to help for years but to no avail, the only one who did nothing to help was he himself, so YES I DO understand the situation, but there comes a point that you have to accept & wait for the outcome that you know will be death. By the time that that has happened you are out of sympathy & a harsh as it may sound, all his mates where glad that it was over for him as he had been living in pain, so far gone that the social system could not help him in anyway.
RIP my mate Mick Nulty (they say you are not forgotton if someone remembers your name after you are gone).
Skipy