Pubdate: Sat, 23 Aug 2003 Source: Times of India, The (India) Copyright: Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 2003 Contact: http://www.timesofindia.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/453 Author: Shivendra Kumar DE-ADDICTION DICTION GOES DOWN WELL The University of Delhi under its department of Adult Continuing Education & Extension in collaboration with National Institute of Social Defence, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment conducted a five-day course on drug abuse prevention recently. The programme was meant for college NSS teachers, adult education functionaries and peer educators of DU. The aim was to sensitise the teachers and adult education functionaries on drug-abuse prevention and education. The course was divided into five parts: Drug use, drug abuse and drug dependence courses, symptoms and prevention of drugs, harm reduction, rehabilitation, counselling and family support, field visits in rehabilitation and de-toxication centre. On the first day, Dr. A.B. Chaudhary, consultant and guest of honour, interacted with the participants on understanding drugs and drug abuse. In the second session Dr. Chaudhary deliberated on the implications of drug-abuse. He touched on behavioural issues, psychological issues, role of family, drug-abuse and HIV/AIDS, youth and drug-abuse. He said that majority take to drugs out of curiosity and fashion. He emphasised the role of the university system, counsellors and NGOs in prevention of the abuse. Pramod Kumar, programme manager, Mamta, an NGO, discussed street children and drug-abuse. He said drug-abuse in rural areas was due to illiteracy, poverty and less educational opportunities. Dr. Rajesh, programme convenor, spoke on drug-abuse and counselling services. He stressed on the need for mass awareness programme. Many speakers emphasised on the need to implement the various activities at grassroot levels and suggested trained volunteers work in urban and world clusters. Shantanu Choudhary's speech was on identifying an addict. Various symptoms or signs - both physical and behavioral -- which would help identify an individual as an addict. The signs for identification ranged from poor physical hygiene and medical problems to several behavioural aberrations such as compulsive lying, indulging in petty thefts and strained relationship with family, friends and neighbours. Dr. Sunita Kumar, an applied psychologist, spoke on how addiction is perceived by the society and the elements that should make an effective prevention programme. She proposed three days of prevention programme. Intrinsic motivation and will power of the addict to escape addiction were emphasised by Dr. Kumar. Thereafter, a play was organised for the participants. Based on a real life incident, it depicted how an addict tries to influence a counsellor into providing him drugs and the skill of a counsellor in handling such challenging cases. Sunil Vatsayan, director, Caring Foundation, shared his experiences with 10,000 odd drug-addicts, whom he has counseled in his career. His informal and lucid style of presentation went down well with the audiences. He cited an example to drive home his point: A pigeon enters a room through an exhaust fan and gets trapped in it. The people in the room despite their willingness to extricate him from the murderous whirring blade seethe in impotent rage at their inability to do so. He asked the trainee's reaction/response in such a situation and then used the pigeon metaphor to describe the dilemma of a drug addict in our society. He felt that something cogent and coherent needs to be done. He was of the opinion that the agents should conduct counselling session with the family of the addict. He also discussed the gender issues in the drug abuse and prevention and said that till date not much attention has been paid to this issue and only an isolated centre for women is being run presently. He focussed on the specific action plan. "The universities should try to form specific committees in their respective college/campus for the purpose and carry out a resource mapping exercise,'' urged Vatsayan. Among students, personality development and life skills training must be imparted. In this context, Vatsayan told the trainees about this year's theme for the International Day against Drug Abuse and Prevention, which is: Let's talk about drugs. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh