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Support. Don’t Punish

A round table took place in Saint Petersburg on the issues of prevention and treatment for drug dependency.   On June 23rd at the Saint…

A round table took place in Saint Petersburg on the issues of prevention and treatment for drug dependency.

 

On June 23rd at the Saint Petersburg state media center, a round table was held on How to Help Drug Dependent People to Stop Using Drugs: Voluntary or Compulsory Treatment? dedicated to the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, celebrated on June 26th.

 

The following individuals took part:

 

Mikhail Korzhik – Head of the Saint Petersburg Anti-Drug Committee;

 

Tatiana Vinogradova — Deputy Head at the AIDS Center;

 

Sergei Dugin – General Director of the Humanitarian Action Fund;

 

Nikolai Ekimov – Psychologist at the Diakonia Charity drug rehabilitation program;

 

Maria Godlevskaya – Project Coordinator at NP E.V.A., working with drug-dependent women;

 

Zinaida Bodanovskaya – Chair of the AZARIA community organization (mothers against drugs).

 

“Considering that we have a women’s organization, I will talk about problems that pregnant drug-dependent women deal with — so to say the group of drug users that can be motivated to quit using more than all others,” NP E.V.A. Project Coordinator Maria Godlevskaya shared. “In 2015, E.V.A. presented the results from research of pregnant drug dependent women’s access to quality medical care. The research revealed high levels of motivation of pregnant drug dependent women to overcome their drug dependency. 88 % of the women who participated in the survey tried to independently quit using or to reduce their  substance use or to shift to a less dangerous method of use during pregnancy. At the same time, only 20 % of the women surveyed sought out narcological help. Why is this number so low?”

 

In the words of Maria Godlevskaya, the problem is that Russian standards for treating drug dependency do not take into consideration particular recommendations for pregnant women. Additionally, many of the medicines used to treat opioid withdrawal syndrome have harsh side effects on the health of the mother and the child. Non-medical rehabilitation for pregnant women is often inaccessible. Among the women asked, 10 % tried to be rehabilitated in inpatient facilities and only one was successful. One of the main reasons is the negative relationship to pregnant drug-dependent women, including from medical personnel.

 

“Has anything changed? Thanks to our colleagues at the Humanitarian Action Fund and Diakonia, the network of trustworthy doctors and rehabilitation centers that was created has changed the situation for pregnant drug-dependent women for the better — in Saint Petersburg. But what do pregnant drug-dependent women do in other regions? How can the negative attitude towards them be defeated? There is no full-scale solution to this problem as of yet, unfortunately,” Maria underscored.

 

Experts also believe that it is important to bring the attention of society and the government to this issue that drug-dependent pregnant women face and more broadly, issues that drug-dependent people deal with. In relation to this, Maria talked about the international campaign Support Don’t Punish, which is held annually on the 26th of June by the International Drug Policy Consortium. This event is devoted to creating tolerance towards drug use.

 

In conclusion Maria mentioned the project Nonprofits Working With Vulnerable Groups, which is being carried out by E.V.A. with the support of the Open Health Institute (OHI). According to Maria, over 80 % of the resources allocated towards the prevention of HIV infection are spent on the general population, which does not reflect the actual tendency of the spread of HIV in Russia, considering that once again in 2015 over 50% of newly diagnosed cases of infection were among injection drug users…

 

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