Training of Afghan Drug Treatment Professionals on the Treatment of Women with drug use disorders
14-19 December 2017, Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Sub Programme 3 on the "Prevention and Treatment of Drug Dependence among Vulnerable Groups" of the UNODC Regional Programme for Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries (RP) organized a six-day training for 16 drug treatment professionals from the Kabul women's drug treatment centre in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The Director of the Training and Research Department of the Ministry of Health of Tajikistan in addition to the Director for Women's Development and the Head of UNODC Tajikistan attended the inaugural session.
The UNODC strategy on the treatment of drug dependence is to promote and support evidence-based and ethical treatment policies worldwide. Scientific evidence has established the fact that there are differences in the contexts in which women initiate drug use, maintain it and enter treatment. Moreover, clinical experience has proven that women respond well to treatments that are women-centred. The women-centred programme is defined as having everyone in the programme taking into account the issues that women face in their lives, like stigma, shame, guilt, fear, limited accessibility to treatment services, domestic violence and psychiatric comorbidity-anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder.
Sub Programme 3, with the assistance from the people of Japan, has supported the upgrade of a drug treatment centre in Kabul for 100 women through providing computers, medical equipment and training several staff members. The current training was attended by the Director of the centre, doctors, psychologists, nurses, outreach workers, and administrative staff. The main objective was to enhance the capacity of the experts to deliver quality drug treatment and rehabilitation services for women.
This training was undertaken in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Counter Narcotics of the government of Afghanistan and the relevant ministries of the Tajik government.
UNODC thanks the People of Japan for funding the event.