Odisha Govt Reaches Out To Persons With Addictive Disorders

Bhubaneswar: With the incidence of substance abuse among the people going up by 20-30% during COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Odisha government has taken several remedial steps to strengthen its de-addiction scheme.

Drug de-addiction scheme of the government has been implemented since 2016-17 and funds are provided under state budget for screening, diagnosis, treatment, counselling and follow up. It is functional at SCB Medical College and Hospital (MCH) Cuttack; MKCG MCH at Berhampur; VIMSAR at Burla; District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) at Angul, DHH at Mayurbhanj, DHH at Balangir and DHH at Puri, Capital Hospital at Bhubaneswar and RGH at Rourkela.

Following the pandemic, the government decided to merge its de-addiction programme with district mental health programme (DMHP) unit to strengthen the efforts for case management, follow up and counselling of addiction cases, official sources said.

“After as it was revealed by a survey of National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) at Bengaluru that 40-60% of people with mental illness are addicted to alcohol, drugs and other substances, the government made 26 outbound call centres and 30 Mobile Mental Health Units functional to reach out to the persons with addictive disorders and mental illnesses by providing tele-counselling, doorstep psychosocial intervention,” they said.

The sources further said an MoU was signed with AIIMS, New Delhi and NIMHANS, Bengaluru in 2018 to train the medical officers and DMHP staff for early diagnosis, treatment and counselling of addiction cases. Mobile mental health units with skilled professionals such as psychiatric specialists and clinical psychologist provided outreach services at the rehabilitation centres.

In another step, the Health and Family Welfare department has issued a deployment order to the psychiatric specialists and clinical psychologist to visit the districts and conduct screening, treatment and counselling of prison inmates suffering from addiction disorder/substance use in different jails of the state.

Two Tele-MANAS cells (14416) are functional in the State for providing psychosocial intervention at SCBMCH, Cuttack and MKCGMCH, Berhampur.