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Description
Our project addresses the shortage in Poland of reintegration programs for people who are socially excluded and addicted to drugs.Social reintegration programs for drug users help to integrate former and current drug users into society. (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2012). In Poland, meanwhile, social reintegration of persons with addiction is limited to helping people who have been treated in on-site rehabilitation facilities who remain clean. It is therefore associated solely with post-rehabilitation. This narrow concept of social reintegration entails provision of places in hostels, adaptation residential facilities, and programs that provide support in abstinence. These programs are not available to groups of current drug users and the socially excluded, and this has implications for the quality of treatment (for example substitution treatment) and results in practice in thousands of people being denied help.Our activities will be centered around Warsaw, in the Praga Północ district, which is Warsaw’s and Poland’s center for drug dealing and homelessness. We will provide integrated support: streetworker (outreach) activities, facilities to keep warm and take care of hygiene, a day center, overnight accommodation, therapy and legal support, treatment for addiction, support in a correction community (support group, hostel) and means of becoming self-reliant. We also envisage opening two adaptation residential facilities, a summer camp combining active recreation and education, and a social cooperative or non-profit company. We will provide training for three outreach volunteers to pursue self-advocacy activities.60 vulnerable persons will benefit from various types of support in the project, and three people will learn self-advocacy skills.
Summary of project results
The project responds to the problem of a shortage of reintegration programmes for people addicted to psychoactive substances. In Poland, social reintegration of people with addictions is limited to helping those who are post-treatment in rehabilitation centres and maintain abstinence. This is a selective and discriminatory approach, as the offer of support is inaccessible to current drug users and results in the real exclusion of thousands. In Warsaw, more than 1,200 people are treated in substitution programmes alone, 30% of whom are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Meanwhile, only a few of the capital''s homeless facilities are open to drug users.Under the project, drug users received comprehensive support. They were offered psychological and legal counselling, therapeutic and assistant support, computer training, participation in art therapy. A day-care centre and overnight care were launched, as well as a readaptation flat and a recreation facility with readaptation apartment in Augustów for reintegration purposes. The Report of the Ombudsman for Drug Dependent People 2022 was also produced, which discusses the state of the Polish system of assistance in the field of treatment and social care dedicated to people with addictions and socially excluded people and makes recommendations. It also networked 30 activists working towards the developed Optimal Model of Substitution Therapy.The project supported 63 people addicted to psychoactive substances, primarily those facing multiple exclusion - due to disability, mental illness, HIV infection or neurological ailments. The project influenced the effectiveness of the treatment programmes available and filled a gap in the offer through additional reintegration activities. The recommendations prepared by the Project promoter will serve to further advocacy activities and improve the support system for people with addictions.
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