Caritas will start offering a drug rehabilitation programme and residential service for drug users under the age of 18.
The service, provided through a public social partnership with the government, will be rolled out by the end of the year as soon as the professionals receive the necessary specialised training abroad, Social Solidarity Minister Michael Farrugia said.
He was speaking at a press conference this afternoon to mark the renewal of the contract signed between the ministry and Caritas for various services offered by the NGO in relation to the treatment and rehabilitation of alcohol and other dependencies.
The contract, which previously used to be renewed yearly, has been extended for three years.
This contract, Dr Farrugia said, will be consolidating existing services as well as strengthening the aftercare services following the drug and alcohol rehabilitation programmes.
The new programme is expected to cater for children as young as 13
Members of the judicature had long been stressing the need for targeted, specialised services aimed at drug victims under the age of 18. The new programme is expected to cater for children as young as 13 and will also incorporate services for dual diagnosis; i.e. for people who have mental health problems or other issues together with a substance abuse problem.
Caritas executive director Leonid McKay said the building earmarked for the under 18 drug rehabilitation services is the former residential home for female drug victims in Birkirkara, which was vacated after new premises were recently opened at the San Blas complex.
However, Dr Farrugia said the plan was to have a specialised building, incorporating a lot of outdoor space, to treat the minors.
“Hopefully, people won’t stay raising objections,” he said.
Mr McKay said that changing trends in drug use opened up new challenges for Caritas’ 30-year model of treatment. Although heroin use was strongest among adults, most young people with drug problems abused of cocaine and new, synthetic drugs, which were posing new challenges.
Synthetic drugs may easily be ordered from the internet and are delivered to the bedroom. Additionally, traces of such drugs in a drug user's system are not detected in conventional tests.
The NGO was also seeing the need for new outpatient services for so-called “socially integrated drug users” – people who had shelter, a job and who were not very much in debt.
A study published last week showed that inmates’ participation in community-based drug rehabilitation programmes was not effectively reducing the possibility of them relapsing.
Confronted with this data, Dr Farrugia said that aftercare services needed to be greatly expanded and more holistic in approach.
“We must see whether the person has relapsed, if he has found job, and whether his family and indeed society has accepting him back. We are looking at having job coaches to help them enter the labour market.
“What services do the government have if such a person ends up homeless? Rents are often expensive. A few weeks ago, we issued an expression of interest for housing for people who are victims of domestic violence and who went through a drug rehabilitation programme. We will be subsiding the rent for the first three years until the person is able to stand on his own two feet.”