Role of drug de-addiction centers to control the drug addiction in the state of Punjab

Role of drug de-addiction centers to control the drug addiction in the state of Punjab Singh G.1, Mitra Y.2*, Sidhu B.3, Kaur P.4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17511/ijphr.2019.i2.07 1 Gumreet Singh, Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar, Punjab, India. 2* Yash Mitra, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences, Jalandhar, Punjab, India. 3 B.S Sidhu, Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College, Patiala, Punjab, India. 4 Paramjeet Kaur, Professor and Head, Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Patiala, Punjab, India.

In Punjab, drug addiction is a cancer which is crippling the mental and physical well being of the youth population of Punjab, rendering them lifeless.
Focus-less, direction-less youth with lots of time and some money in hand get easy lured into the drug habit, either prompted by peers or on their own. It is allover the country, except that its affliction is quicker and deeper in Punjab, than other places. In short, easy money, nothing to be focused on, Drug rehabilitation is an umbrella term for process of medical and psychotherapeutic treatment, for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drug, and so-called street drugs such as cocaine, heroin or amphetamines.
The obvious intent is to enable the patient to decrease their previous level of substance abuse, for the sake of avoiding its psychological, legal, social, and physical consequences. Drug rehabilitation is a multi-phased, multi-faceted, long term process.
Drug rehabilitation centers play an important role to make drug addict free of addiction. The treatmentcum-rehabilitation centers provide services to the community as awareness generation, Identification of addicts, motivational counseling, detoxification/ de-addiction, vocational rehabilitation, after care and re-integration into the social mainstream and preventive education.

Results
The findings of the study are as follows:     in behavior and were determined to abstain from drug abuse in future and said that they will recommend the centre to others but 53 (58.9%) denied it at centers run by Indian Red Cross Society.
Only 6 (20%) patients felt change in behaviour and were determined to abstain from drug abuse in future and said that they will recommend the centre to others but 24 (80%) denied it at centers run by private registered societies.

Discussion
The study was conducted in ten DDCs running in various districts of Punjab. Out of 10 DDCs, 7 were under the administrative control of Indian Red Cross Society and 3 were under the control of Private Registered Societies.
A pretested proforma-I was used to collect details regarding centre's Infrastructure and Human Resources' strength and health services provided by these centers.
A total of 120 patients were interviewed and information regarding their socio-demographic profile and their satisfaction with the services being provided and Indoor stay facilities at DDC was collected maintaining full confidentiality.
The outcome of the study shows that age group 20-40 years is the most common age group in which drug-addicts are more. (9.2%) to tablets and 7 (5.8%) to bhukki. Saluja et al (2007) found that mean age at 1st use of primary substance was 14.8 years [12].
Similar finding were reported by kadri et al (2003) who found that 26.1% had positive family history of drug addiction.Age of starting habit was earlier (<20 years) in those who were having easy excess of availability of drugs [11].
The study shows that private as well as centers were less as compared to the demand load of drug addicts and even less patients were attending these centres due to the inhuman behavior of staff.
Even out of those patients, majority were not satisfied at these centers. Various reasons told by patients were like when they don't obey orders of staff members, they were being verbally or physically abused and tortured by DDC staff.
As far as medical services were concerned, at times it became irregular. Even during counseling sessions, at times derogatory remarks were made by the counselors. Which is against the guidelines of Government and also shattered the faith to get treated from private DDC's.

Conclusion
On evaluation of drug de addiction centers it was found that these centers are just running. There is urgent need for improvement in the services and facilities to patients at these centers run by Indian red Cross Society and private registered societies.
Therefore the recommen-dations regarding role of DDCs to control the drug addiction in the state of Punjab are as below:-

Contribution by Co-Authors
The co-Authors helped to collect and analysis the data collected from various DDCs of the Punjab state to prepare and finalize the manuscript. Dr. Mitra made correspondence for various additional inputs.

What this study adds to the existing knowledge
It is very clear from the present study that at the grass root level lot of inputs are needed to over-com the worst scenario of drug addiction in Punjab. The menace of drug addiction and mush-rooming of the private DDCs are adding fuel to the already burning situation in the state.
Therefore government of Punjab and community must share the responsibility to help and support the existing DDCs with more infrastructure and skilled human resources to counter this menace of drug-addiction in Punjab to save the youth and future Generations.

Reference
Singh G. et al: Role of drug de-addiction centers to control Centers run by IRCS are charging Rs. 1400 per month and private registered societies Rs. 4000-5000 per month from the family of the drug addicts. It is strongly recommended that the treatment should be provided free of cost to the needy and poor patients.
Physical and mental harassment of drug addicts must be stopped.
Vacant posts of councilors and auxiliary staff must be filled.
Centers run by private registered societies have severe staff shortage.
Vocational rehabilitation services like tailoring, carpentry or computer courses must be provided and these centers be financed by the government.
The project directors of these centers must be retired persons from the medical profession or from allied fields.
Specialized training of the staff in de-addiction is urgently needed so that they can understand the needs and behavior of drug addicts.
There is a strong need to expand the scope of research in the field of drug de-addiction to improve the effectiveness of treatment by the DDC centers providing preventive and curative services to the addicts in future and to provide evidence in policy makers that sufferers are eagerly awaiting effective preventive, curative and rehabilitative services in the state of Punjab.

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