Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo today directed Principals of Government newly established Medical Colleges to establish Drug De-addiction facilities to provide quality healthcare and on-spot counseling to the patients by January 2020.In this regard, a marathon meeting was held on the directions of the Financial Commissioner here in Srinagar, to assess and made all possible arrangements for establishing the facilities at the Government Medical College, Anantnag and Government Medical College, Baramulla.The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Principal/Dean Government Medical College, Srinagar, Prof Parvaiz Ahmad Shah.The meeting was attended by Principal, Government Medical College, Baramulla, Prof Abdul Hamid, Principal Government Medical College, Anantnag, Prof Showkat Geelani, Prof. (Dr.) Arshad Hussain Department of Psychiatry, GMC Srinagar, Medical Superintendent, Government Medical College, Hospital, Baramulla, Medical Superintendent, Government Medical College, Hospital, Anantnag, HOD Department of Psychiatry, GMC Baramulla, HOD Department of Psychiatry, GMC Anantnag.Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo urged Doctors and other stakeholders to come forward for making headway in curbing drug menace in Jammu and Kashmir and making the campaign a grand success. He said that the Government was aiming that the Drug De-addiction Policy would focus on the integration of drug de-addiction centres with main hospitals and on treatment and rehabilitation.
He said that the Government has prepared a special policy for strengthening the government drug de-addiction centres under which the top quality treatment facilities would be provided to the victims of drug addiction.He said that the purpose of establishing these centres is to further strengthen the campaign started by the Government—of which the strengthening of drug de-addiction is an important part. “We will provide top quality treatment facilities to the drug victims in the shortest time possible,” Dulloo said adding that it was mandatory that new drug de-addiction centres be established in Jammu and Kashmir Government soon.Principal, Government Medical College, Srinagar, Prof Parvaiz Ahmad Shah informed that the agenda of the meeting was setting up of De- Addiction facility at newly established medical colleges. He said a detailed discussion was held regarding the minimum requirements for starting the OPD and IPD services for De-Addiction patients in GMC Baramulla & GMC Anantnag.The officials said that the Drug De-Addiction admissions would start by January 1, 2020, with the target of 3-5 admissions.The meeting was informed that the hospital administration would provide a dedicated and separate space of 3 - 5 beds for the De-Addiction Ward. They informed a separate space for De-Addiction OPD (OPD Room and Counseling Room) will be designated by the hospital administration.The hospital administration will arrange the medical officers (3-5) from common pool for duties in De-Addiction Ward.The Principals unanimously decided to depute five nurses for de-addiction ward duties, besides hospital administration will provide dedicated pharmacist, orderlies, for the De-Addiction ward.The meeting was informed that the hospital administration would provide security; surveillance and other logistic support to the De-Addiction Ward, besides the sanctioned strength of Junior Residents of Department of Psychiatry will be filled at the earliest.Principal, GMC, Anantnag, Prof Abdul Hamid said that counsellors and social workers will be pooled from existing staff (DEIC NRHM, NHM, DMHP, MSF, till regular staff is appointed.“We have decided that we will start the facilities by January 2, 2020,” he said.It may be recalled here that the Jammu and Kashmir Government’s Drug de-addiction Draft Policy has received accolades from experts of 37 countries at an international conference, held at New Delhi.To tackle drug abuse that has over the years seen an exponential rise in Jammu and Kashmir, the government drafted a policy focused on prevention, awareness and accessibility to treatment.Notably, the State Administrative Council (SAC) had accorded sanction to the first-ever drug de-addiction policy in Jammu and Kashmir on January 5, 2019. The policy lays out a comprehensive action plan for addressing the drug addiction issue in its entirety.Medicos said draft policy for drug de-addiction has also called for an immediate end to the isolation of patients which will help to de-stigmatise the treatment of disease.The policy recommends that drug de-addiction centres should be integrated with the main hospitals to facilitate de-stigmatisation of the treatment process of drug addicts.It says drug de-addiction centres functioning in isolation leads to increased stigmatisation of disease and feelings of shame and exclusion, which makes treatment and eradication of disease difficult.Based on a preventive model of disease, the drug policy will focus on increasing the knowledge of the community about the consequences of substance use, potential risk factors and measures that can be adopted to avoid those factors.The policy will focus on reducing the substance use, behaviour in the individuals, decreasing the vulnerability of the population at risk of drug abuse and management and treatment of patients.