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Drug Users Network Seychelles brainstorms its 2018-2020 strategic plan |17 January 2018

 

The Drug Users Network Seychelles (DUNS) met various agencies and stakeholders to discuss its roadmap for the next two years in a brainstorming session held yesterday at the Ceps conference room.

DUNS is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) set up and accredited in 2017 and, most importantly, is a peer based organisation ran by and for people with drug abuse disorders.

Hence -- as a newly formed body -- it was crucial for the organisation to make the first steps towards conceptualising its 2018-2020 strategic plans.

With that goal in mind, DUNS members gathered alongside representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Family Affairs, National Assembly and Agency for the Prevention of Drug Abuse and Rehabilitation (APDAR) to map it out.

“Formulating a strategic plan for DUNS is very important because it will help them know exactly where they are heading, make sure they are attending to their mission and vision and make sure DUNS does not simply drift along without purpose,”  the consultant responsible for helping DUNS draft the plans, Benjamin Vel, explained.

Dr Louine Morel, the senior medical registrar at the Communicable Diseases Control Unit (CDCU), gave a detailed situation analysis vis à vis certain diseases proliferated through drug injections, such as HIV and Hepatitis C.

Her presentation considered the effectiveness of certain harm reduction strategies such as the Methadone Substitution Therapy (MST) and -- the more controversial -- Needle and Syringe Programme (NSP).

According to Dr Morel the needle exchange is proving beneficial in that it has made it easier to detect people infected with HIV and Hepatitis C since those who use the needle exchange service are obliged to do their medical tests.

“Although there has been an increase of people detected with HIV and Hepatitis in 2017 that does not necessarily mean more people are getting infected but rather indicates that NSP is doing its job in helping us detect these patients,” she said.

Implemented in June 2016 the needle exchange programme provides people using heroine drugs with one kit containing three needles and syringes per week. These can only be collected at the Seychelles Hospital on Mahé, Grand Anse Praslin Health Centre and Logan Hospital on La Digue.

There are currently 683 people who inject drugs enrolled on the programme and they are all expected to return with all three needles in order to receive another kit but, as revealed during the session, not all return with that same number since they often pawn them off to other users.

“To be buying these needles when there is a needle exchange programme readily available is not advisable. We invite other people injecting drugs to come onto NSP,” Dr Morel concluded.

Other subjects discussed during the brainstorming sessions were the possibility of NGOs helping out with the NSP, availability of the NSP in prisons, individualised programmes focusing on mental and social well-being, drop-in centres among others.

Fady Banane, the network co-ordinator at DUNS, stated that the suggestions and ideas raised during the brainstorming exercise will be the starting block for the organisations’ ultimate 2018-2020 strategic plans.

“I hope this will pave the way to change the misconceptions about the community of people who are using drugs,” Mr Banane expressed.

 

 

 

 

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