MANILA, June 23 — A total of 2,508 out of the estimated 1.3 million drug surrenderers, sought treatment for their addiction from July 2016 until last May — 1,643 as inpatients and 865 as outpatients, Health Secretary Dr. Paulyn Ubial has reported.
Of the figure, 1,263 have completed their treatment while 778 have returned to their respective communities.
Ubial presented the figures during the recent “Rehabinasyon” forum held at the Event Center of the Quezon Memorial Shrine in Quezon City.
The mega drug rehab and treatment center in Nueva Ecija has 321 patients, she said, adding that her department has been trying to decongest a number of treatment centers by asking patients to move to other facilities.
She however emphasized that a patient’s transfer from one rehab facility to another should be voluntary, otherwise the Department of Health (DOH) could be charged with illegal detention.
Ubial further said that the DOH has been establishing one treatment and rehab center in every region in the country and has also licensed 46 facilities that could cater to about 5,000 inpatients.
“Were trying to expand ASAP to cater to a target of 30,000 inpatient care,” she said, acknowledging the help of some partners in the development of such facilities, among them San Miguel Foundation, Resorts World, Alliance Global Group, Kausaban Foundation Inc., Friends of the Philippines Foundation Inc., the Chinese government, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Meanwhile, the department has been developing teaching modules for training health workers.
“We have 18 regional coordinators and trainors across the country training our front-line health workers. Almost every week we have training (sessions to) expand the capacity of our health workers for drug abuse management,” she said.
”Before this administration, we did not have any training module. We did not have community-based rehabilitation. We developed all of these from scratch,” she added, thanking the department’s international partners, such as the World Health Organization.
Apart from these, the department has been looking into different modalities of treating drug dependents, as suggested to them, among them acupuncture and herbal medicine. (Leilani S. Junio/PNA)