Drugs: action

Joint UNODC-WHO Programme on Drug Dependence Treatment and Care

UNODC developed with the World Health Organization (WHO) a joint programme on drug dependence treatment, aiming to provide a more humane and effective service to all people who suffer from dependence, in a manner equivalent to the treatment offered to any another type of illness.

This global initiative provides for the participation of governments, health professionals, non-governmental organizations and financing agencies committed to offer treatment based on scientific evidence and directed towards the recovery of patients, catering to the specific needs of drug users, in their different clinical, social and motivational stages.

In March 2009, a UNODC-WHO joint mission was in Brazil to dialogue with partners from the country on the national strategies for Brazil's participation in the joint programme. The Health Minister, Jose Gomes Temporão, confirmed that Brazil will be a partner of this important programme.

Treatnet - International Network of Drug Dependence Treatment and Rehabilitation Resource Centres

TreatnetTreatnet - International Network of Drug Dependence Treatment and Rehabilitation Resource Centres - is an international cooperation project created and managed by UNODC. It is composed of 21 resource centres for the treatment of alcohol and other drugs dependence, located in different parts of the world. The network's objective is to improve the services offered and to make them more accessible to citizens who want and need treatment.

Chosen based on their potential to become a reference in the area, the centres improve the quality of their services through mutual collaboration, exchange of information and sharing of successful experiences. The result of this improvement is the reduction of negative consequences, both to individuals and society.

In Brazil, the Psychosocial Attention Centre for Alcohol and Other Drugs - NAPS-AD (Núcleo de Atenção Psicossocial - Álcool e Drogas), a governmental health centre in the city of Santo André, was chosen by the Health Ministry and UNDOC to be part of the Treatnet cooperation network. Professionals who work in NAPS-AD attended international meetings involving technical coordinators from the 21 selected resource centres. One of the results achieved was the production of a good practices document and the development of a training protocol for professionals working in the area.

NAPS-AD develops, with the community, activities based on a series of guidelines: sanitary responsibility, universal access, interdisciplinary work, activities in collective spaces, therapeutical projects, social control and users' and workers' autonomy. The vision of the professionals who work in the centre is to develop within patients a feeling of responsibility, protagonism, citizenship and network action.

Prevention to the inadequate use of drugs in the work and family environments

Based on an international reference methodology, UNODC develops a project of prevention to the inadequate use of drugs in the work environment. The project aims the adaptation, implementation and impact assessment of psychoactive substances' demand reduction activities in the work and family environments, following guidelines established by UNODC, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

In Brazil, the project was adapted and implemented since 1995 by the Rio Grande do Sul State Industry's Social Service (SESI-RS), in partnership with UNODC, with approximately 50 companies. SESI also applied the same methodology in four companies in Uruguay. The results related to the prevention of problems caused by the use of narcotics and alcohol among workers and their families were positive:

• There was a reduction of 16% in the number of smokers.

• Alcohol consumption, considering frequency and amounts consumed, was reduced by 12.5%.

• Workers' absence by reason of illness or incapacity, which burdens companies' payrolls, were reduced in average by 10%.

• The number of workers arriving late fell from 7.2% to 5%.

• Before the project's implementation, 23% of the workers informed they had been involved in accidents in the previous 12 months. By the end of the project, this percentage dropped to 14%.

As a consequence to the results obtained in Rio Grande do Sul, the project implemented by SESI received the quality certification ISO 9001. The workers' quality of life and the companies' productivity also improved.