Brasilia, 24 May 2021 - The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), as part of the "Pernambuco Cooperation", which counts with a partnership among the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the State Secretariat for Violence and Drug Prevention Policies (SPVD) the United Nations Agency for Human Settlements (UN-HABITAT) and the Igarapé Institute held on Monday morning (24) the Webinar "International Guidelines, Prevention and Mapping of Drug Use Treatment Services".
The event marks the launch of an unprecedented survey, which will be conducted in all 184 municipalities of the State and in the territory of Fernando de Noronha, with an expected participation of around 3,000 teams of the Psychosocial Care Network (RAPS) and 102 Host Therapeutic Communities.
The Survey
The "Mapping of Treatment Services for Disorders Associated with Drug Use" will structure in detail the entire network support for people who make harmful use of alcohol and other drugs.
The network includes primary health care teams, hospitals and therapeutic residential services. This is an unprecedented research in Brazil and was inspired by the tool developed by UNODC, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO).
The results of the research will seek to guide two absolutely necessary and complementary fronts: the strengthening of the psychosocial care network managed in the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) environment, which brings together a series of mechanisms, and an approximation with the institutions that make up the complementary therapeutic network.
"UNODC's contribution in this technical cooperation aims to support the production of technical subsidies to strengthen the strategy of the State of Pernambuco to prevent violence and treat disorders associated with drug use, based on scientific evidence and international best practices, focusing on youth aged 12-29 years," said Elena Abbati, the UNODC Brazil Country Director, at the opening ceremony, which was attended by the governor of the State of Pernambuco, Paulo Câmara; the vice-governor, Luciana Santos; the Secretary of Health of Pernambuco, André Longo; and the Secretary of Violence and Drug Prevention Policies of Pernambuco, Cloves Benevides.
According to the governor of the State of Pernambuco, Paulo Câmara, "security policy should not be made by using repression only. Prevention is what is behind all the work. Using prevention we can avoid many things, we can avoid many problems in the future", he stressed.
UN Conventions on Drugs
As the guardian of the three UN conventions on drugs, UNODC guides member states to take all measures to prevent drug abuse. According to the UNODC World Drug Report 2020, 35.6 million people in the world have a drug problem and some disorder associated with drug use. "Unfortunately, there is a very large treatment gap, only 1 in 8 people in the world, who have some drug-related disorder, receive some kind of treatment. The UNODC Programme Officer of the Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Section, Anja Busse, one of the panelists at the event, warned.
The meeting was also attended by professionals from the psychosocial care network, institutions that care for people who make harmful use of drugs, professionals in the area of violence and drug prevention, NGOs, external observers, and state government institutions.
The event was attended by 350 participants.
Pernambuco Cooperation
The Pernambuco Cooperation is part of the innovations that the State Secretariat for Violence and Drug Prevention Policies promotes. It is in process to deliver to the State Government 17 products, in 4 axis, all related to violence prevention and drug policies.
Access the full event here.
Learn more about the Mapping of Treatment Services for Disorders Associated with Drug Use here.
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