HCM CITY (VNS) – Provinces and cities have been asked to create an action plan for community-based treatment for drug addicts in an aim to reduce the number of patients at rehabilitation centres from 63 per cent to 20 per cent by 2015, and 6 per cent by 2020.
Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Trong Dam has urged localities to set up counseling centres in their wards or communes for drug addicts.
Speaking at a two-day conference that ended yesterday, he said counselors should urge drug addicts to voluntarily visit community-based treatment facilities.
There are 140 rehabilitation centres in 60 provinces and cities.
Thirty-two provinces and cities have carried out treatment programmes for 10,000 drug addicts in either communities or families, according to a report from the Department of Social Evils Prevention.
The number of drug addicts nationwide has increased, while those who have had a relapse after treatment remains high.
“The fight against drug addiction has been not effective,” Dam said.
The country has a total of 182,800 addicts, and of that number, 19 per cent are addicted to amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), compared to 8 per cent in 2012.
Areas with a high proportion of addicts of ATS include Da Nang (74 per cent), Tay Ninh Province (61 per cent) and Ben Tre Province (52 per cent).
As of June, methadone-based opioid substitution treatment has attracted 16,500 addicts.
In 2015, 80,000 will be expected to use the treatment.
Dam said that provinces and cities had not offered enough assistance, such as vocational training and jobs for addicts who have left rehab centres.
He said this assistance should be offered to more addicts who voluntarily go to community-based facilities, with the goal of 70 per cent of them having stable jobs by 2020. -VNS
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