-Health Minister says
MINISTER of Health Dr Frank Anthony on Monday emphasised that a collaborative effort between the relevant stakeholders is needed to tackle drug-abuse issues in the country.
He made this remark during a ceremony that was held to observe International Day against Illicit Trafficking and Drug Abuse.
According to Dr Anthony, the health ministry has approached this issue from a medical perspective to help ascertain the best measures or ways to prevent these types of habits from developing.
He noted that medical professionals believe that the school system is the best place to start, as it is here that children of all ages can be educated about the harmful effects of drugs.
The minister acknowledged that while raising awareness alone does not change behaviour, it is an important part of the work that needs to be done to tackle the various issues.
“In terms of prevention, while we are collaborating with the Ministry of Education and going into schools, if we do it in pockets, it’s not going to work. We have to do it on a scale,” he explained.
With the programme about to be rolled out in schools, the health minister indicated that teachers also need to become involved. This could be done by incorporating awareness and prevention talks into the school curriculum, he said.
Added to this, he said that there is also a large population of children who have dropped out of school and as part of this programme, those persons will be targetted.
While there are educational, reintegration programmes which provide such persons with other practical and technical skills, the minister said that there must be a way to give them the type of education that would guide them away from substance abuse.
Further, he said that closer attention must be paid to schools and even communities where the different agencies must collaborate to address drug-abuse issues.
“While we would work and provide the knowledge and so forth in terms of whether its prevention or treatment, we also need to do more in terms of the clinics that we have and how we can treat… we have about 10 clinics that are operational now and if this is a national problem, then we need to have more clinics and make them more accessible to people,” he said.
