Insufficient resources, personnel, infrastructure challenging rehabilitation and detoxification programmes
By Savithri Rodrigo
Mont Fleuri, Mahé Island (Commonwealth Union) _There is not a day that goes by in the Seychelles without the news agencies carrying at least one story of substance trafficking and substance abuse. Just this week, a Nigerian national was charged for ingesting 93 capsules of cocaine, a total of 1.892 kilograms. A few days before that, a Brazilian national was arrested for importing five kilograms of cocaine hidden in his luggage, the largest haul in recent times. And the list goes on as does the fight against substance abuse which has been a long one.
However, it I s not just substance abuse that the Division for Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation (DSAPTR) is fighting. Itis the lack of resources and proper infrastructure to provide services. With addiction being a complex issue that requires trained personnel, including psychologists and nurses, both of which are scarce, the DSAPTR has minimum budgets to give the services required. The DSAPTR’s mandate includes treatment, prevention and education, as well as programmes for alcoholism.
With 4,267 people undergoing various rehabilitation programmes and 99 having successfully completed their rehabilitation, the DSAPTR is looking at multiple thousands still in treatment and another few thousand showing signs of wanting treatment. However, there are those who fall off the wagon, missing their appointments, default or are irregular. While this is not necessarily directly linked to the lack of resources or infrastructure, it does contribute to the downward spiral seen in those seeking treatment.
In 2017, the Seychelles established the Agency for Prevention of Drug Abuse and Rehabilitation and put in a Methadone treatment programme in place which currently spends about USD 300,000 annually on this programme alone. This treatment unit handles a harm reduction programme which categorically is not geared for detoxification, but rather to reduce the harm that sharing needles will have on family members and the community in the event of an addict getting HIV of Hepatitis C. The locals call the harm reduction programme the Methadone programme and have been critical of its methodology of distributing clean needles instead of a more penetrative rehabilitation programme. However, the unit defends its rationale that it is meant to reduce harm caused by the sharing of needles and the eventual dangers of HIV or Hepatitis C spreading to family members and the larger community.
The vast majority of heroin addicts in the Seychelles started off using cannabis. The DSAPTR supports cannabis for medical use prescribed by a medical professional but is vociferous that it should not be for recreational use, given the large numbers and the impacts of drug use it is seeing on a daily basis.
