(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The need for the development of evidence-based policies on drug treatment and care in the Caribbean Region was one of the main issues raised at the start of the regional training workshop on Standards of Care for Treatment and Rehabilitation Facilities for Substance Abusers.
Organised jointly by the CARICOM Secretariat and the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), the two-day meeting which began on 3 March in Montego Bay, Jamaica, agreed that research and information on drug treatment and care must form the basis for clear and sustainable regional policies which should transcend governments.
Dr Anna Chisman, Head of Drug Demand Reduction at CICAD, in delivering opening remarks, expressed concerns that priority attention was not paid to the treatment of drug and alcoholic dependence in the Region. In advocating for quality care and access to quality care in drug treatment, Dr Chisman opined that such care and treatment should be done in a similar manner as the approach to treating other lifestyle related diseases such as diabetes.
While acceding that resource constraint was one of the major challenges confronting practitioners in drug care and treatment, Dr Chisman asserted that proper standards must be established in order to attract public and private sector funding. She stressed further, the need for effective monitoring and evaluations systems to ensure compliance to established standards.
In welcoming participants to the meeting, CARICOM Secretariat’s Arnulfo Kantun, who has coordinating responsibilities for the 9th European Development Fund (EDF) Reduction in Supply and Demand for Illicit Drug programme, outlined the social and economic consequences of illicit drug use in the Region and underscored the call for more and vigorous efforts in reducing the demand for illegal drugs.
Chair of the Meeting, Ms Beverley Reynolds, CARICOM Secretariat’s Programme Manager for Sustainable Development, highlighted the objectives of the meeting, noting that among the major outputs would be the identification of draft set of minimum standards to be used to inform national standards of care. In addition, she pointed out that a World Health Organisation (WHO) document on Assessing the Standards of Care in Substance Abuse Treatment, would be used to develop a handbook on standards of care which consider the Caribbean realities and its various treatment settings.
The Meeting has brought together a wide cross section of international, regional and national practitioners in drug treatment and care, policy makers on drug related services and community-based drug treatment service providers.
Members of the Technical Advisory Body for the CARICOM Regional Drug Demand Reduction Strategy endorsed by the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) in 2001, are also participating.