Communities urged to set up support structures for drug abusers

Gloria Muruva-Herald Correspondent

Health experts have called on the Government and communities to put in place comprehensive social support structures for drug and substance abusers to avoid relapse.

Zimbabwe has been recording high rates of drug and substance abuse particularly among the youths.

In an interview yesterday,  a psychologist Mr Daniel Tarisai said while the most effective way of managing drug abuse was rehabilitation, it had to be followed up with other measures to make sure one did not relapse.

“Basically most effective way of managing drug abuse is rehabilitation. That is removing one from the environment that might influence him to take drugs and the minimum period of rehabilitation is six weeks. 

“One also has to do self-awareness, self-distraction, that is keeping yourself occupied to curb relapse,” he said.

He said there were three types of relapse which were emotional, mental and physical relapse. 

“Before one goes into physical relapse it starts weeks even months before physical relapse. It starts with emotional relapse. On emotional relapse one is not thinking about using drugs but emotions and behaviour set one up for a possible relapse in the future and basically the signs are one feels anxious, angry for no reason, mood wings, poor appetite and bad sleeping habits.

“Mental relapse there is war between one’s mind the other part is telling one to go back to drugs and the other one is  resisting citing the dangers of drugs. 

“The signs are that one starts to think about skipping counselling sessions and remembering the places where one used to take drugs. 

“Finally physical relapse is when one actually goes back to the places where they used to take drugs and start consuming them again.”

Mr Tarisai said that relapse could be triggered by stressful circumstances and also pre-existing mental health challenges.

Community Working Group on Health (CWGH) executive director Mr Itai Rusike, said Government should implement programmes to support victims of drug abuse to avoid relapse.

“There is need to invest in youth friendly drug rehabilitation and counselling services instead of placing the burden of care  on families who themselves lack information and tools to respond and who still experience  stigma around drug abuse. 

“Families should get greater support from Government and other stakeholders to promote communication and to help those facing drug abuse challenges. We need to prioritise prevention of drug abuse and tackle the drivers of drug abuse,” he said .

“We need a Comprehensive School Health Programme that is well supported by the Ministry of Health and Child Care. The current set up is unworkable and could be the reason why we have all these challenges with drug use and abuse, child pregnancies, suicides and domestic violence.”

Mr Rusike said instead of criminalising the drug users, there was need to focus on social support structures as a way of solving the current problems that have resulted in the surging drug abuse, overdose and deaths through a public health approach.