How to Support Bohol's First Drug Rehab Center

For The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

Now that Bohol’s first drug rehabilitation center is about to operate this month, it may be good to talk about how we can support it. Rene Francisco, CEO of the FITWBK (Farm It Works Balay Kahayag) Chemical Dependency Treatment Center, arrived the other day with the technical and administrative staff to finalize and implement plans to renovate and equip the facility and have everything in place in accordance with existing guidelines.

By this time, the Municipal LGU of Baclayon and the barangay councils within the immediate catchment area (barangays Laya, Montana and Cambanac) have been oriented on the policies and procedures of the Center. Once it is ready for full operations, the newly-formed staff from the partners, Family and Recovery Management Center from Minglanilla, Cebu and the It Works Chemical Dependency Treatment Center, will formally invite representatives from the Provincial Government, the various agencies, faith-based and civil society organizations to formally open discussion for possible partnership.

The facility is located at the Balay Kahayag Training Center compound in Laya, Baclayon. A number of queries have been received on admission procedures and we have referred these to the executive staff composed of Rene Francisco, COO; Jimmy Clemente, CEO; and Alain Alino, Center Director.

Queries can be made with Director Alino at Mobile number 09173250252 or with the Administrative Officer, Martin Cinco at 09774506285 or at email raemartin-cinco@yahoo.com.

The Pestelos family, which owns the BK facilities that will be improved upon and used by FITWBK, and the Bohol Local Development Foundation, Inc. (BLDF) which has carried out intensive research and consultations on having a drug rehabilitation center in the province and undertaken liaison work with the two partner entities, are not part of the management nor of the administrative staff of the facility.

This is to enable the FITWBK to be managed as a business enterprise to ensure its financial sustainability. Its clients will be charged standard or regular fees. The management will exercise functions as befit a commercial entity to ensure financial viability for the enterprise.

Although a business concern, it will be run as a social enterprise, with its profit used to operate the business and the profit to be channeled to contribute to the objective of helping increase the access of drug abuse victims from among the youth to high-quality services offered by the FITWBK.

It has been agreed between BLDF and the FITWBK Management that for every ten (10) paying clients, an additional two (2) will be non-paying who will be recommended jointly by DSWD and BLDF as coming from indigent families. This number will still not be enough to cope with hundreds of young people who have become drug abusers in recent years, most of them from marginalized families who will not be able to pay for center fees although these are much lower than those charged in similar facilities outside the province.

This is a critical area needing support from the Government, private sector and civil society organizations. They may want to sponsor clients to the Center on a sharing basis with the individual families and the Center management. The latter has had experiences on such arrangement and it will conduct an information campaign on this vital aspect of its operations.

The other opportunity for supporting FITWBK is to help in addressing the tremendous demand expected of its services in a province where around 70% of reported crimes are drug-related. This is an area requiring determined action from both Government and civil society organizations.

Despite the presence of the FITWBK, which is still limited in its intake capacity in relation to the huge demand for pre-treatment or diagnostic and treatment services, we still need to have a more systematic approach to broaden access to such services.

A contact point is needed between a service facility and the families affected by drug abuse and pave the way for their drug-related problems to be systematically addressed. Some ways must be found to relieve FITWBK of some tasks related to this need so it can focus on the treatment aspect of its operations.

As I said in previous columns, almost fifty percent  in a 21-column run I did on the subject of drug addiction since early this year, we need to establish what is called Outreach and Drop-In Centers (ODICs) by the UN or Substance Abuse and Family Enhancement (SAFE) by other agencies. Whether called ODIC or SAFE, this facility has these common objectives:

a.       To provide early intervention services and counseling to drug addicts to prevent relapse;

b.      To provide motivation and counseling to the addicted persons, and co-dependents/family members to seek treatment;

c.       To involve the community and significant others to help the drug addicts and their families in their recovery journeys;

d.      To reach out and provide basic information, knowledge and literature to addicted persons who do not want to appear in the treatment center;

e.       To provide home-based treatment for those in remote areas, particularly women where treatment facilities are not available;

f.       To provide a place and encourage the meetings of the support groups for recovering persons and co-dependents;

g.      To facilitate vocational training, job placements, develop self-employment and income generating activities for recovering persons; and

h.      To help recovering persons to join mainstream society as productive citizens and continue their recovery journey successfully.

The activities undertaken in this facility are as follows:

1.      Outreach visits;

2.      Early intervention strategies such as pre-treatment counseling, home-based detoxification;

3.      Short-term outpatient or home-based treatment;

4.      Referrals to hospitals or drug treatment centers;

5.      Organization and conduct of education and training programs by professionals on drug awareness,

6.      Training of outreach support staff and volunteers,

7.      Skills training; and

8.      Encouraging family members to come to the centers for counseling.

In a previous column, we have put the details on the specifications and costing for such a vital facility. I still think the Church and faith-based organizations will be in a better position to initiate and manage it at this time as support to the drug rehabilitation center which will soon be operational but still with limited capacity to address all the needs brought about by this enormous drug addiction problem in our province.

The other support needed will be the organization of a Core Training and Operations Team (CTOT) composed of agencies and other entities with programs or projects which can be linked to drug prevention and rehabilitation.  As listed before in previous studies and proposals, this team may include: the Provincial Government of Bohol, the various LGUs preferable in those most affected by the drug abuse problem, Holy Name University and other academic institutions with psychology courses, Kasing-Sining Association, and representatives from the Church and other faith-based organizations.

This team will require intensive training on how to help implement the various initiatives related to supporting the drug rehabilitation center, the ODICs or outreach facilities that have been proposed to relieve the pressure off the pioneering facility, and to prepare for a more systematic collaborative efforts on the part of various sectors in carrying on the task of addressing the so-called drug menace in our province.

This team may have an inter-agency composition or it can be based in one agency or NGO and given the authority with counterparts from other entities. It will have to be trained and mobilized to produce the following outputs vital to this initial phase of an evolving Provincial Drug Abuse Prevention and Rehabilitation Assistance Program (DAPRAP):

-A systematic plan for doing community-based orientation and consultation activities in priority

areas agreed upon with FITWBK;

-A resource mobilization and fund raising campaign to be able to raise funds for a working

Secretariat and to implement key activities;

-A clear plan on how to raise funds to enable clients from indigent families gain access to the

services from the Center;

-A plan to generate support and participation from potential partners (LGUs/CSOs; Provincial

Government; Kasing Sining; Holy Name University; University of Bohol; BISU; and other

academic institutions; the Catholic church and other faith-based organizations; CSOs/NGOs;

corporations and the business sector;

-A plan for tapping support from the UN and international donors.

In a society such as Bohol which is known for families and constituencies with high

respect for authority, the initial steps to take in the fight against drug abuse will require a clear

call from the leadership at family and up the hierarchy of mandated and official governance. A

clear and persistent call from formal and informal leaders must now be heard not only about

arresting drug pushers but, more importantly, in making drug abuse victims undergo counselling

and a recovery process eventually.

I think most people in the province want a drug-free Bohol but they have not found a united voice to say it.  I sense that once the FITWBK and several outreach facilities are in place, the province shall be in a better and more effective position to launch a multi-sectoral approach to the drug addiction problem which now threatens the present and future of most families in our province.

Then it will be time for our leaders and people to talk about the Bohol they want. I am sure they will say, with few exceptions, they want a drug-free province.

 For comments, email npestelos@gmail.com

NMP/06 Nov. 2015/8.03 a.m.