the ways we intervene in curbing addiction to substances has shifted from the medical era, focusing on acute care, to a comprehensive chronic care model . people need long-term support to stay off substances, as well as immediate help to stop using them.
this calls for the adoption of a bio-psycho-social approach that proposes that illness and disease conditions are not only biological, but that have psychological and social dimensions. managing addiction requires taking account of all these factors.
my ph.d. research examined alternative and innovative approaches to curbing the use of a heroin variant known locally as whoonga or nyaope. opioid use has risen exponentially in the country over the past 20 years . over 60 per cent of those confined to rehabilitation centres are young, black south africans .
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policies should also take account of spiritual issues so that they align with people’s belief systems . there should be an openness to inviting other healing methods, including traditional ones.
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the strategy should include professional and non-professional ways, including innovative ways, of supporting recovery. in the u.s., organizations such as alcohol anonymous and narcotics anonymous have accepted the movement from a focus on acute care to a focus on chronic care .
the u.k. and australia have lobbied for legislation and implemented some recovery houses. in south america, brazil reported on its first recovery house in 2019.
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the country has very few public rehabilitation centres, and those run by the private sector are expensive. this points to the need to devote attention to the fact that communities can play an immense role, including as preventive and after-care agents .
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this article is republished from the conversation under a creative commons licence and was first published on oct. 3, 2022. read the original article .