The Community Integration Treatment Space, which opened its doors on Tuesday the 9th, will serve people who consume drugs in a problematic way and present high social vulnerability. The service will work five hours a day, from Monday to Friday, with 40 participants and a specialized team that will work on the social inclusion of users.
The inauguration of the headquarters, located in the Cordón neighborhood of the department of Montevideo, was attended by the head of the Ministry of Social Development (Mides), Martín Lema; the secretary general of the National Drug Board (JND), Daniel Radío; the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Pablo Mieres; the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Carolina Ache; the president of the Uruguayan Institute for Children and Adolescents, Pablo Abdala; the national director of Social Protection, Fernanda Auersperg, and the court prosecutor, Juan Gómez.
Lema explained that this is an addiction treatment center with a strong social insertion component. In this sense, he pointed out that it will include a team specialized in problematic drug use and that it will offer sports, recreational and cultural activities, in coordination with the National Sports Secretariat, the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Municipality of Montevideo.
He specified that it is of low demand, because the only requirement to attend is that people express their willingness to access treatment and present a situation that requires it. “This is part of the objectives outlined by the portfolio in relation to generating quotas that address the causes of many situations of social vulnerability,” he added.
Likewise, he maintained that the objective is to achieve the social reintegration of the participants and, for this, the stigma must be ended and integration must be worked on, with the neighborhood and the community, through the different proposals.
Radio, meanwhile, indicated that, to address such a complex issue, inter-institutional work must be deepened. In addition, he pointed out that the proposal coincides with the paradigm promoted by the leading institution regarding risk management and harm reduction.
He affirmed that this problem cannot be solved without first addressing its causes, above all, exclusion. In this sense, he considered that care strategies and the strengthening of social protection are essential to achieve the reduction of consumption and reintegration.
Auersperg revealed that the hours of operation will be from Monday to Friday, against the nightclubs, for about five hours a day. The form of entry will be by reference of the technical teams of the nightclubs or 24-hour centers, as well as by the will of those who express the intention to receive the treatment.
The purpose is to create a space where the community is integrated into the proposals offered through the entities involved. Plaza No. 2 will be available for recreational activities, sports practices and a grid of actions given by the Ministry of Education and Culture. “The goal is to provide all institutions with a quality service and the social reintegration of users,” he added. Presidency
