DavSur has no drug rehab program
AMONG the five provinces in Davao Region, only Davao del Sur has yet to establish its own community- based rehabilitation program to address drug surrenderers, thus the Department of Health ( DOH) is now pushing to train its personnel in the province to be able to start providing necessary health care services to their drug surrenderers.
Dr. Caridad L. Matalam, DOH 11 regional coordinator for Danger- ous Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Program, in an interview yesterday said that they are eyeing to train Davao del Sur DOH personnel by January next year so that they could
could implement their own program and provide services for those who intend to avail drug treatment.
She said that when they called for a training on how to establish a treatment rehabilitation program, there was no representative from the province. Those who attended were expected to relay what they have learned from the training to their municipalities down to their barangays.
DOH, she said, will only provide technical assistance, logistics and provisions to the LGUs like if they need drug testing kit mainly for capability building but the LGUs are responsible for its implementation in their community.
The community- based rehabilitation will accommodate those who have mild substance use and low risk drug users, while the moderate cases will be referred to facility- based outpatients and the severe will be accommodated at residential rehabilitation centers.
Rehabilitation programs cover promotion and prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, after- care and reintegration and in monitoring and evaluation. “Dahil sa dami ng activities hindi na rin nila makaya ilakad ang papeles nila, probably ( by) January,” she said.
By 2018, they will conduct assessment down to the municipal level to monitor if their drug rehabilitation program is functional. This is to align the LGUs’ effort to the department’s goal that by 2022 they establish 100 percent rehabilitation up to the barangays.
Yesterday, the two- day Mindanaowide Dangerous Drug-Abuse Prevention and Treatment Summit kicked off at The Royal Mandaya Hotel that aims to update accomplishment after a year on the government’s campaign on illegal drugs and sharing of best practices with other provinces. It was attended by Health Secretary Francisco Duque. JCR