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By: Modou Kanteh
The Drug Law Enforcement Agency The Gambia and its International partners have started to put up various mechanism in place to ensure that illicit drugs and other related problems are minimize in the country.The agency on Tuesday 16 April in collaboration with Colombo Plan Drug Advisory Program (DAP) and the United States Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).completed the second phase of training of trainers on the Universal Treatment Curriculum for Substance Use Disorder (SUD).
The event brought together participants from various institutions in the country. During the training participants were introduced to subjects like Common Co-Occurring Mental and Medical Disorder, assessment and treatment options and models, core counseling skills, psycho education groups for clients and families among other things.
Speaking at the closing ceremony the deputy director of Drug Law Endowment Agency The Gambia, Tijan Bah said his agency would do everything to ensure that the program is successful in the country. He said Gambia is among the first countries in West Africa to have such a program introduced. He called on participants to make best use of the skills acquired during the training.
The whole training would take almost a year but it is divided into phases. It is expected that after the completion of the training participants would be certificated and the certificates would be recognized worldwide. The net phase of the training is expected to take place around July 2019.
The training aims at building capacity of relevant stakeholders in internationally recognized standards of best practices in drug treatment and equally help professionalize the drug demand reduction treatment workforce.The lack of enough qualified drug Addiction professions, Psychiatric Doctors and Nurses, Psychologists, Social workers greatly affect the support needed to help people with Substance Use Disorder (SUD)
