Integrated drug rehabilitation

JAKARTA (JP): Detoxification to clean up a drug addict's body is just the beginning of a long and winding course of therapy before an addict can return to society, a seminar has concluded.

"To become physically drug free is easy. Just join a detox program and your body will be free from drugs. But what comes next is more important. Like how they will control the trigger to use drugs or how to get a job and interact with people," Emi Sutomo, a member of the Tunas Kencana Indonesia Foundation (YTKI), an association of parents of drug addicts, said during the seminar on drug abuse here on Monday.

The seminar, jointly held by YTKI and the Titihan Respati Foundation (YTR) rehabilitation center, introduced a relatively new method of drug addict treatment called Therapeutic Community (TC). The method has been used in the United States since 1963 by the New York-based Daytop International rehabilitation center, which claims to have healed 93,000 alcohol and drug addicts.

According to Aloysius Joseph of the U.S. rehabilitation center, chemical detoxification is a condition of entry and not the goal of treatment.

Rather than focusing on medical treatment, TC is an integrated program which involves physical, psychological and social treatment.

"The first thing that is being emphasized is that people can change. A lot of addicts came, thinking that they couldn't get better. But change is possible if they believe so," said Joseph.

YTR is one of only two rehabilitation centers that adopt the TC method.

The method is divided into two main programs: A primary program and reentry or a familiarization program.

The primary program consists of role modeling, a family milieu concept, therapeutic session, religious session and peer pressure. The session then continues to intellectual and spiritual sessions, vocational survival skills, behavior and psychological shaping.

The primary program lasts for six months, followed by another six months of a reentry program or familiarization program in which patients prepare for their return to society.

Most of the drug addicts are trained to become counselors, like Desy, 17.

She became an addict three years ago, when she was in second year of a private junior high school. Starting with drinking, she ended up taking putaw (low grade heroin), given to her by a friend.

The program costs Rp 3 million a month.

"It's expensive because we invite experts and doctors from other countries," said Emi.(09)