PANO – Government leaders and public health experts have convened for a conference to build a comprehensive care for substance users via integration of substance use disorders, HIV, and other services.
The bi-annual conference is the only one of its kind in Vietnam to integrate substance use and HIV/AIDS.
The goals of the conference are to promote and build a comprehensive and integrated care system that treats substance use disorders and HIV/AIDS, and more effectively reduces the burden of these diseases on individuals, families, and the community.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the conference, Vice Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long laid stress on health, community safety and security as well as economic benefits for the family, which are outcomes of the methadone program.
Long also emphasized the need to expand and integrate programs and focus more on addiction, especially new challenges arise.
“Individuals that get into the program, such as in Hai Phong, reported a 70 percent reduction in criminal activity with 48 percent of the patients being employed and productive members of the family and community,” Long said.
Supported by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Vietnam HIV Addiction Technology Transfer Center (VHATTC) at the Hanoi Medical University organized the three-day conference with approximately 350 participants from the Ministries of Health, Labor and Invalids and Social Affairs, and Public Security, including 30 provinces and experts from local non-government and community-based organizations and international organizations and universities, such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), USAID, the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and FHI360.
Participants discussed state-of-the-art evidence-based approaches and community-based treatment models to integrate substance use disorders and HIV/AIDS into Vietnam’s existing healthcare system, including methadone treatment, alcohol, heroin, and methamphetamine treatments, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and community-based treatment for vulnerable populations such as men who have sex with men, women, and children.
Chung Anh
Đăng ký: VietNam News
