THE United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health yesterday opened a two-day drug demand introductory workshop to address brief and early interventions for substance abusers in Guyana.

The workshop is at the Main Street Plaza Hotel, Georgetown and brings together social workers from volunteer organisations such as the Volunteer Youth Corps; Catholic Youth Club; the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association, and the Ministry of Human Services.

Chief Facilitator is Dr. Julie Hando, United Nations Volunteer Treatment and Rehabilitation Specialist.

Other resource persons are Mr. V. Kissoon and Ms. Rosemarie Terborg, Project Manager.

Terborg said the objective of the project is to help reduce drugs demand in the country and it is hoped that this can have a spillover effect.

It is funded by the UNDCP, with the Ministry of Health as the executing agency.

The scheme works with identified communities to help reduce the demand for drugs and has three components:

* community-based drug rehabilitation/reduction where the facilitators try to help empower members of the communities identified, to be able to develop skills they can work with to achieve a better standard of living.

* Preventive education component where family life education seminars are conducted.

* Treatment and rehabilitation, beginning to gain momentum with the acquisition of the services of Dr. Hando.

The methodology of the seminar is to give participants an opportunity to interact so that persons could share their knowledge and in turn do presentations by way of case studies.

The project has so far worked with three areas, Tiger Bay in Georgetown; Angoy's Avenue in New Amsterdam and Linden, Region 10.

A rapid assessment survey, Terborg said, has shown that alcohol is the most widely abused drug and much emphasis is being placed on that.

And while substances such as cocaine and marijuana are not easy to report on, by virtue of being hidden activities, there is nonetheless an alarming incidence in Guyana and this is being addressed.

Terborg hopes the alliance can have more such seminars to reach more community workers, who will thereafter be better able to venture out into the communities, intervene and share their knowledge with substance abusers.

Hando said the UNDCP is keen to identify substance abusers and deal with the problem quickly before it develops into more chronic situations.

She recalled visiting the Salvation Army Drug Rehabilitation Project in Kingston, Georgetown, and commended their efforts.

She said she has been collaborating with them on their substance abuse programme which provides an enabling environment for substance abusers, with the specific purpose of empowering and training them to acquire various types of work-related skills.

She commended their approach at providing substance abusers with the opportunity to talk about their issues and what their problems are.

Hando noted that substance abuse is a very difficult issue to treat.

"Particularly when it's more serious (advanced) there is usually a higher rate of relapse. This means that substance users, once they've given up drugs, often would start using again...

"But the important thing to note is that they could always come back to treatment programmes once they (the programmes) are available to deal with these issues."

"They are not excluded from them because they may have relapsed in the past, but we encourage them to always examine what they can do; speak positive things, and give the support to help them out of the habit," she said.

Hando, who is giving one year of voluntary service in Guyana working along with the Ministry of Health, is based at the Georgetown Hospital.

She is into the seventh week of her stint here.