How to get off the needle

The number of drug-dependent individuals in Ukraine is still on the rise. Officially registered users of narcotics alone have shown an almost fourfold increase in the past 15 years — 84,000 in 2005 compared to 22,500 in the early 1990s. Approximately 116,000 Ukrainians are now receiving drug-related preventive treatment and advice, while various experts estimate that the real number of drug addicts may soon reach 200,000-500,000. Sadly, doctors have observed increasingly more young addicts, including teenagers. Ukraine is going to receive help to combat this malady from the European Union and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

In September Ukraine launched the program “Support for the Creation of a Comprehensive System of Social Services for Young Users of Injected Drugs.” This three-year program envisions spending over three million euros to offer preventive treatment and other assistance to drug abusers. The target group is expected to comprise approximately 50,000 individuals, including users of injecting drugs and their families, specialists from Ukrainian social services, and various governmental and non-governmental youth organizations.

There is a critical need for this kind of assistance, both financial and organizational. The Ukrainian system of drug abuse control encompasses dozens of organizations and foundations, including those dealing with HIV/AIDS, each of which works independently. Svitlana Tolstoukhova, director of the State Social Service for the Family, Youth and Children, notes that only a single network of institutions following European standards can help achieve effective and comprehensive results.

“Unfortunately, we still do not have a departmental or inter-departmental program to provide primary and secondary assistance to addicts,” Tolstoukhova said last Tuesday at a press conference. «Many have limited access to a large number of services, such as needle exchanges, and social programs do not reach a large number of drug abusers.» The new plan envisions developing single standards for offering help to drug addicts, providing a comprehensive and high- quality education to social workers, organizing workshops, purchasing required equipment, and launching a broad information campaign. As part of the plan, managers of regional services dealing with injecting drug users will have an opportunity to go on educational tours, including abroad.

Following a request from the State Social Service, the equipment and materials needed for providing social, medical, and diagnostic services to individuals in risk groups will include syringes, needles, used needle disposal containers, disinfectants, bandages, antiseptics, etc. Together with the UN Population Fund, the State Social Service will also carry out an additional assessment of its needs and update the list of indispensable medical equipment. In the sphere of educating social workers and drug users the UNFPA will cover expenses related to the purchase of laptop computers, projectors, video recorders, televisions, and even automobiles, depending on how acute the problem is on the oblast and raion level. While this international project is still being set up, Ukrainian social services are expanding the network of help centers in an attempt to increase their numbers to about 200 by the year 2007. More than 400 specialists and 800 volunteers have been trained as part of educational programs that also involve several thousand employees of social help centers.

Borys Vornyk, the UNFPA’s coordinator in Ukraine, promises a real struggle and genuine results only after the new program is implemented. “At this stage we are just healing the consequences, while the root cause lies in the desires of young people. Young people are not inclined to trust adults, so their education and preventive treatment should be conducted according to the formula “equal to an equal.” Workshops alone will not help. We have to work with thoughts,” Vornyk says.

Let us hope that a streamlined system of primary preventive treatment of drug dependence will be created.