Officials complete short course training on ‘Treatment and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts’. Photo supplied
Fifteen officials from the National Authority For Combating Drug’s (NACD) Legislation, Education and Rehabilitation Department have completed short course training, held in India’s New Delhi City, on “Treatment and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts”, aiming to arm themselves with knowledge and experience from Indian experts.
Department director Lim Tong Huot on Wednesday said the officials learned more about general drug-related issues, types of drugs, factors leading to drug abuse and how to use the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test in detecting dangerous drug substances, during the training held from February 4-9.
They further learned how to intervene, volunteer their time and advise drug addicts, managing their addictions through psychological analysis and treatment, rehabilitation and education, he said.
“Drugs are a global issue. Drug control and treating addicts is not only the responsibility of Cambodia, we need to cooperate with countries around the world to tackle the issue,” he said, adding that Cambodia always accepts foreign assistance related to drug control including equipment and insight.
According to Tong Huot, the Kingdom has two types of facilities to treat and rehabilitate addicts – 16 provisional centres and 430 health centres, district and provincial hospitals.
Commenting on the improvement of department officials’ abilities, he said: “From year to year, we reinforce their abilities to become more capable and obtain the technical knowledge needed to provide a more efficient treatment.”
According to a 2018 report on fighting drugs, there were 21,257 drug users receiving treatment and rehabilitation at medical institutions and the provisional centres.
The report shows that Cambodia still faces issues such as a lack of human resources, money, materials and education, with only 33 per cent of the 1,305 district and provincial hospitals offering treatment for drug addiction.
In addition, local support organisations for addicts at the commune level are not widespread throughout the Kingdom, with only a few working actively.
