SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct. 4 (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Minister of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, Blas Trujillo, and the General Director of Public Health of the Canary Islands Health Service (SCS), José Juan Alemán, have presented the IV Canary Plan on Addictions to the Health Commission of the Canary Islands Parliament 2022-2024, endowed with nearly 39 million euros.
It is a document resulting from the collaboration of different instances, public administrations, non-profit entities of the third sector, social agents and professionals in the field that is part of the National Strategy on Addictions 2017-2024 of the National Plan on Drugs, currently in force, in accordance with its mission, principles, values and objectives.
During his speech, Blas Trujillo stressed that addictions represent a public health problem that affects the population as a whole, which requires the involvement and coordination of all social spheres to provide an effective response to the problems suffered by people with some kind of addiction.
He also stressed that this plan contemplates the actions to be carried out both in cases of addiction to substances and behavioral addictions to promote a healthier society that is aware of the risks that some behaviors have.
The counselor wanted to recall that, according to the EDADES and ESTUDES epidemiological surveys, the most consumed drugs in the Canary Islands are alcohol, tobacco and sedative-hypnotics, with cannabis being the illegal drug with the highest prevalence.
He also explained that this plan includes as emerging aspects the addictive capacity of information and communication technologies, the increase in the consumption of certain drugs with a high addictive power, or the strong link between drug use and gender violence, which It raises the continuous need for training and updating of the policies and actions to be carried out in this area.
PLAN OBJECTIVES
For his part, the general director of Public Health, José Juan Alemán, explained that the Plan will be evaluated and reviewed continuously and that it is made up of six general objectives, which entail 38 specific objectives, which means that 93 lines have been established concrete actions.
The six general objectives, according to Alemán, are, first of all, prevention and awareness, which seeks to reduce risk factors and increase protection against drug use and other behaviors likely to generate addiction.
Secondly, comprehensive care, aimed at promoting and guaranteeing comprehensive and continuous care adapted to the new realities of addictions and attending to the different profiles of people, especially those who are vulnerable, excluded or at risk of social exclusion.
A third objective is harm reduction, which addresses how to reduce or limit the negative consequences of addictions in people with said problem.
Fourth, social and labor incorporation, which includes actions to promote participation and collaboration in the processes of social and labor incorporation of social and economic agents, institutions and entities, as well as to raise awareness in relation to compliance with current regulations on this matter to the different public institutions.
The Plan also has the objectives of supply reduction, which encompasses those actions in terms of supply reduction and other issues related to addictive behaviors from a comprehensive and coordinated approach, and support and support, which includes knowledge management, the training of professionals and research in addictions; coordination and participation by creating coordination mechanisms at the regional, insular and municipal levels, facilitating the participation of all public and private agents related to the field of addictions; evaluation to efficiently measure all the actions carried out in the field of addictions; and the communication and dissemination of actions to publicize all the activities carried out in the field of addictions, favoring the exchange of knowledge and experiences and facilitating the participation of all the agents involved.
As he said, the Plan considers prevention and health promotion to be of great importance from a community and participatory approach. For this reason, it includes prevention actions for the general population (universal), at risk (selective) and those already affected (indicated). Developing risk reduction actions and the promotion of healthy lifestyles and habits in educational, family, community, leisure and free time, work and media environments.
Likewise, the General Director of Public Health added that a study is being carried out on the influence of the pandemic on addictions in the Canary Islands and that coordination with the entities that execute prevention programs has always worked properly and that good practices are being homogenized. in such a way as to promote a homogeneous portfolio of services.
