Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Nov 26: The recent drug policy formulated by the government aims at challenging the "drug-related stigma" by integrating the drug de-addiction centres within hospitals.
Stigma is defined as a set of negative beliefs that a group or society holds about a topic or group of people.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), stigma is a major cause of discrimination and exclusion and it contributes to the abuse of human rights.
The Kashmiri society is no exception. With the Valley witnessing an exponential rise in the drug-menace and increasing taboo around it, the government has come up with a policy that focuses on prevention, awareness and accessibility to treatment.
However, the main focus of the policy, according to the experts, will help to de-stigmatize the treatment of the disease by integrating the drug de-addiction centres into the general hospital settings.
The draft of the policy accessed by Early Times from the health and medical education (HME) department reads, "The state has seen a steep rise in the burden of physical, mental and substance-use disorders over the past two decades."
It says, "Drug addiction, unfortunately, does not come alone. It brings with it shame, violence, crime, destruction of individuals and families, accidents and death.
The problem we are dealing with is complex because it affects all the facets of one's personality and renders the person dysfunctional and a burden for the family and community."
A psychiatrist said: "The so called de-additions or rehab centres cannot address the problem alone. We need to integrate de-addiction services into existing hospitals."
He believes that for that, the government does not need to build any infrastructure, or a separate investment. "You just need trained manpower," he said.
Commenting on the already established rehabilitation centres, the psychiatrist said, "If you build these drug de-addiction centres in isolation, the stigma is increased."
He explained: "Integrating the de-addiction centre within the hospital helps in overcoming the stigma and gives him a patient status.
In a way, you medicalize the problem. The isolated centres criminalize the problem."
The health experts at the IMHANS also expressed their views on the policy and how "community rehabilitation" is the need of the hour.
They echoed, "Keeping a drug addict within the four walls is a failed concept. It has been seen that rehab system has more relapses. This in turn means that treatment success rate is very poor."
The drug policy recommends re-ingratiation of the victim into the family and then into the community.
He said, "We admit the victims along with families where they get counseling in the form of psycho education.
The families have certain pre-conceived notions regarding the addiction which needs to be changed."
The doctor said that the reasons for the person to go into drugs is most of the times is the family itself. "We tell them the problems within their families and how to care of these patients. Once the family is involved, the compliance rate is high," he said.
Under community rehabilitation, the policy aims to provide certain benefits to the victims by getting them involved in vocational training.
"Rehabilitative care should be based on the community rehabilitation model where patients once successfully detoxified are motivated to maintain abstinence by linking them with social schemes for skills development and vocational rehabilitation," reads the draft. |
