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Tuesday 11 June 2013 –
Daily Update
– 7
DYNAMIC DISPLAY
: The team fromWestminster Drug Project in
the UK promote their
Giving Something Back
programme in the
poster display area. ‘The key factor that prevents an individual
from relapsing is gainful employment. This can be either paid or
even unpaid in the early stages. The Giving Something Back
programme provided by WDP has already resulted in very positive
outcomes and has provided a real alternative to many of our users
who are in recovery to give them a purpose in life which no longer
involves drugs or alcohol,’ said Yasmin Batliwala, WDP chair. Visit
the poster area on the mezzanine floor to see this and other
displays, and talk to the people who created them.
Engaging with Indonesia’s
young street users
‘Young people who use drugs have unique developmental and
situational needs that aren’t addressed by traditional adult-orientated
services,’ Tesa Sampurno of Indonesian peer-support programme
Rumah Cemarah told delegates in yesterday’s
Children, young people
and drug use session
.
Just over 2 per cent of the Indonesian population used drugs, he said,
equivalent to between 3.8 and 4.2m people, with his service targeting
young people in the city of Bandung. ‘Many of them are street-involved,
poly-drug users and experience a wide range of harm due to their drug
use,’ he said. ‘And programmes are failing to reach them.’
Harassment from law enforcement made it even harder for services
to access vulnerable young people, he stressed. ‘They can be beaten up,
and even hospitalised, by police officers or security staff just because
they’re walking in the mall, for example. So they become closed off.’
His organisation, however, was directly engaging with young people in
different parts of the community, he stated. ‘Importantly, Rumah
Cemarah has established the trust of young people who use drugs, who
now freely share their experiences, seek advice and bring their friends.
The youth themselves are now the brain and the core of the programme
– the programme is running because of them.’
Flexibility and creativity were essential when working with young
people, he said, as were demonstrating respect for, and belief in, them.
‘You need patience and the ability to demonstrate a safe and supportive
environment, as you need to provide holistic, integrated programmes
that recognise drug use as just one part of the broader needs of young
people. We don’t just talk about drugs, but about their life problems,
their social problems – every aspect of their lives.’
Reaching out to
children in Romania
The first harm reduction outreach projects in Romania
had begun in 1999, Iona Tomus told delegates in
Monday afternoon’s
Children, young people and drug
use
session. However, as of this month, all funding for
harm reduction services in Romania would stop.
The implications were dire, she warned. Figures from 2011
showed that there were around 17,000 people injecting drugs
in Bucharest, and far fewer
syringes than were necessary
because of lack of funds. ‘Of
course the consequences
appeared immediately,’ she
said. ‘In 2010 the HIV rate
among people who inject
drugs was 3 per cent. By
2012, it was 31 per cent.’
The problem was
particularly acute among
younger people, she said,
exacerbated by rising rates of
‘legal high’ use, particularly
mephedrone. The age of
initiation could be as young as
ten, she said, and rates of
equipment sharing were high.
‘In order to have access to
health and social services,
however, you need the
permission of parents. It’s the
opposite of “Nothing about
us, without us” – it’s
“Everything about us, without us”.’
The children using drugs were mostly in Bucharest, she
said, and typically had low levels of education and literacy, as
well as behavioural and health problems. Rates of
homelessness were also high. ‘I am a harm reductionist, so
what should I do?’ she said. ‘Officially, harm reduction service
providers state that they don’t offer services to children, but
they do.’ This could often lead to confrontations with police,
she added.
‘There are also moral questions – is it right to give syringes
to a child, for example – as well as lack of funding and lack of
proper instruments to create child-friendly services. But
changing the law is an important issue and something that
we’re trying to do on an ongoing basis.’
It was also vital to standardise the methods by which the
number of children using drugs was monitored internationally,
she stressed. ‘We need to know our epidemic and how it differs
to that of adults, and make guidance specific, accessible and
relevant. We have a lot good practice – we just need to bring it
together internationally and fill the many urgent gaps.’
‘
We have a lot
good practice
–we just
need to bring
it together.’
IONA TOMUS