DEMOCRACY, CITIES AND DRUGS II DRUG USE AND WOMEN SPECIFICITES IREFREA Italy

DEMOCRACY, CITIES AND DRUGS II

DRUG USE AND WOMEN SPECIFICITES IREFREA Italy

Project financed by he European Union, in the framework of the Public Health Programme

1st workshop of the Thematic platform

Venice 1-2 October 2009




The DCDII project

Objectives: support EU cities in developing local partnership-based drug policies involving the relevant stakeholders so that a coordinated, participative, targeted, and thus resource effective approach can be developed towards drug-related problems.

Structure:

• 1 EU experimental network of partner cities;

• 4 national networks (France, Italy, Portugal, Romania);

• 5 thematic working groups based on the findings of the 1st DC&D project.




The “Thematic platform – Women and Drug misuse

Objectives:

Share experiences and learn from available research and good practice at European level on the development of local drug policies which are appropriate in addressing the specific needs of women with drug misuse problems

Develop guidelines based on the above

Structure:

Lead partner: IREFREA Italy

Scientific Committee: Cinzia Brentari and Sabrina Tripodi, IREFREA Italy and Belen Hernandez, external expert

Cities involved: Crotone, Nottinghamshire, Stuttgart, Venice, Veneto region




Methodology for the development of the guidelines:

• questionnaire aimed at mapping the availability of services for women drug users in the city and available policies/initiatives aimed at addressing women drug users needs distributed to relevant officials within a number of cities from the network

• analysis of the information collected through the questionnaire

• analysis of existing literature

• collation of existing operative protocols and guidelines for the integrated treatment of women with a drug misuse problem

• drafting of a scientific document on the various aspects of working with women with substance misuse problems.




The role of the cities:

• the collection and analysis of data on existing local policies and services for women drug users in their cities

• sharing good practices they might be aware of in this field and

• contributing and benefit from the development of guidelines for integrated assistance of women drug users.




What has been done so far:

• DCDII Strategic Seminar, Paris 20 June 2008 – presentation of the exchange platform to the cities

• DCDII Implementation seminar, Bucharest January 2009 – formalisation of cities joining the platform

• Dec 2008 – October 2009 -Drafting/administration and analysis of the answers to a questionnaire distributed to relevant officials within a number of cities and literature review

• October 2009– 1st workshops in Venice to discuss implementation of the guidelines




The questionnaires

Received:

Bucharest: City of Bucharest

Crotone: Comune di Crotone (city), ASL/SerT Crotone (service)

Nottinghamshire: DAAT (city); Double Impact Services, WANDS – Women’s Alcohol & Drug Service, Livin IT, Criminal Justice Integrated team (services)

Regione Veneto: Regione Veneto, Servizio Prevenzione Devianze (city)

Venezia: Comune di Venezia, Attività di Riduzione del Danno (city)

Stuttgart: City of Stuttgart, Public Health department (city), Lagaya (service)




The questionnaires

Summary of findings:

-Disaggregated data on drug/alcohol users collected by all cities/services

- Not all cities services have data on the pregnancy status/children of women accessing services

-All cities seem to have both in-patient and out-patient services with a great variety of coverage and availability between cities (some only 1 service, some many)

-Most cites have adopted protocols of work with women and/or some coordination process between services involved

-With reference to recent changes in women accessing services, some cities refer they are younger than before and they present with problems of poli-drug use




The questionnaires

Summary of findings (2):

-Services most requested by women are, aside from health and treatment services, social services such as legal support, housing, education, support to keep the children

-All cities recognise that women are afraid of stigma (in particular when children are involved) and particularly sensitive to issues related to confidentiality and anonymity

-All cities/services seem to adopt some specific approach to women’s needs either by having special services in place, training staff on gender issues and/or networking with other services available in the community

-Most cities have prevention activities among young people and girls through schools, special centres for women (consultories, anti-violence centres) or through special project




What remains to do:

• October 2009 – May 2010 – Drafting, discussing and finalising the European guidelines on the development of local drug policies which are appropriate in addressing the specific needs of women with drug misuse problems

• October 2010 – second workshops in Venice to discuss implementation and finalisation of the guidelines

• March 2011 - Final DCDII conference – presentation of the final guidelines




Thank you!Cinzia Brentari, Work Package leader

[email protected]

Barbara Cibin, Administrator

[email protected]

Sabrina Tripodi, Project Assistant

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



Documents

DEMOCRACY, CITIES AND DRUGS II DRUG USE AND WOMEN SPECIFICITES IREFREA Italy