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Description
Identifying and managing people addicted to toxic substances is a global challenge. Toxic consumers are often reluctant to seek medical attention due to low levels of respect and stigma. This stigma stems from the lack of sufficient and specific training of medical staff for such situations. In Romania there is an acute need for integrated services of psychological counseling and treatment of dependent people to ensure the increase of addressability and stop consumption. The AddictHelp project provides a solution to these problems by facilitating access to integrated information, counseling and treatment services in a safe environment for people with toxic addictions. Increasing the degree of mobilization and social inclusion of toxic consumers by implementing the AddictHelp program is based on 3 main pillars 1) increasing access to medical and psychological services tailored to this target group 2) informal education of health workers and social workers in order to increase their compliance in care of patients with addictions 3) raising awareness among the general population on the importance of reducing stigma and increasing the degree of social inclusion of toxic consumers. This will be achieved by setting up an outpatient testing center and a psychological counseling center within the Cluj-Napoca Regional Institute of Gastrology and Hepatology, as well as by operating online informal education platforms. At the same time, the project proposes the elaboration of practices and useful resources in the management of people with addictions. Through this project we aim to corroborate medical and psychological data with the needs identified by the target group itself (toxic consumers) to lay the foundations of a state-of-the-art program adapted to Romania, for people with addictions.