Substance abuse addressed during stakeholder engagement
“The devasting socio-economic impact of drug and substance abuse is well documented,” says health MMC, Cllr Rina Marx.
The Tshwane metro’s health department and University of Pretoria recently met to discuss the progress their substance abuse programme has made.
The community-orientated substance abuse programme (Cosup) has been implementing community-based substance abuse interventions since 2016.
The metro says that the partnership’s efforts are in line with the national drug master plan, which requires a well-researched community-based substance abuse response.
“The devastating socio-economic impact of drug and substance abuse is well documented,” said health MMC Rina Marx.
“I want to encourage anyone impacted directly or indirectly to use the services available at the 16 Cosup sites in Tshwane.”
Cosup is a multi-faceted programme that tackles drug use through the assistance of a network of governmental and non-governmental partnerships.
Some of the fields addressed in the programme include demand reduction, education, treatment and rehabilitation. Some of the services in these fields include medical interventions, counselling, social services, needle exchange programme, HIV/AIDS as well as TB screening, opioid abuse therapy and post-rehabilitation support.
“It is through collaborations like Cosup that we aim to bring a city that is free from the burden of the abuse of drugs and substances,” Marx concluded.
See the list of Cosup centres near you.
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