Within the framework of COPOLAD’s roadmap “Support for the implementation of Community Intervention initiatives in Chile”, four officials from the National Service for the Prevention and Rehabilitation of Drug and Alcohol Consumption (SENDA) made a technical visit to Montevideo from August 8 to 10 to learn about the community intervention mechanisms developed in the country.
The objective of this two-day internship was to learn about community treatment programs and/or initiatives and to exchange development and implementation experiences with the technical teams executing them and with the technical teams of the National Drug Secretariat of Uruguay.
The Chilean delegation visited 8 community treatment facilities in the Montevideo area, such as La Otra Esquina (LOE), Achique de Casavalle, Espacio de tratamiento e integración comunitaria (ETICO) and the Unidad Móvil de Atención Nocturna, among others. They also met with various authorities, such as Daniel Radío, head of the National Drug Secretariat (SND) of Uruguay.
The visits took place within the framework of the Chile-Uruguay Cooperation Project, financed by the Chilean Cooperation Agency, AGCI, and the Uruguayan Cooperation Agency, AUCI.
National landing
The Chilean drug agency, SENDA, has proposed to advance in the design and implementation of community approaches, through low-threshold actions to address the problem of alcohol and other drug use in highly vulnerable people, thus strengthening the care network in Chile. To this end, it has received support from COPOLAD through consultancies and technical internships in South American countries, allowing it to learn first-hand about successful experiences already being developed in these countries. During this year, the team will be working on the design of a pilot program to be implemented in 2024, taking into account the experience and technical advice received.
The SENDA delegation was composed of Gilda San Martín, head of the Territorial Division; Francisca Oblitas, cabinet advisor; Francisca Alburquerque, head of the Area of Detection and Brief Interventions in the Community; and Pablo Müller, professional of the Social Integration Area of the Programmatic Division.
The next steps of this roadmap for Chile, which COPOLAD accompanies, will be an exchange visit to Argentina to learn about the experiences of SEDRONAR and a consultancy between September and December for the “Design of a community accompaniment project”, which will seek to be a space open to the community (care and community accompaniment house) for listening without stigma and psychosocial accompaniment for people who have problematic drug use from a harm reduction approach.
