Today's Edition
KHALED AL KHAWALDEH (ABU DHABI)
A new pilot programme is revolutionising rehabilitation in the UAE and giving recovering drug addicts a new lease of life.
The Halfway House in Abu Dhabi is intended to act as an "in-between" where recovering addicts can gradually be reintroduced to society through a guided 6-month programme that sees them mentored by doctors, therapists, social workers, and concerned family members.
Speaking to Aletihad, H.E. Asma Al Aziri, Executive Director of the Family Cases Sector, Family Care Authority Abu Dhabi said the programme aimed to reduce relapse rates to zero through a highly targeted and localised scientific approach.
"The Halfway houses are a social entity; we are not policing them, we're not judging them. First and foremost, you would have no criminal record filed with us and so that is a relief for the individual and their family," Asma told Aletihad.
"There is a stigma, we can't say there isn't. But what we are doing to mitigate that and solve it is awareness and education that sees drug relapses as a chronic disease, and sees that we can't just stigmatise that person or isolate them from the community. We need to be with them; we need to help them move on and improve their well-being."
In its first year of operation, the centre assessed over 60 cases, with 23 people having gone through the programme and 8 graduating.
Asma tells us so far that none of those that have graduated the intensive rehabilitation plan have relapsed, a success rate that the Halfway House hopes to maintain.
Patients who have completed their mandatory detox rehabilitation can be transferred to the Halfway House where they are taken through a 12-step programme that works to mend their phycological state, whilst also focussing on reconnecting them with their culture, society, and family.
"We have sports therapy, music therapy, a national identity programme where we enhance the national identity beliefs, which is something that is very important, as you want this person to be reintegrated in their community and within their people," Asma explained.
"Then we have the family counselling, which is not only for the individual only, but his entire family -those family members were at some point impacted mostly negatively by that individual. What we do is we rebuild this connection, and we rebuild this dynamic within the family itself to make sure that when this individual goes back or returns to his house with his family, then there is a very solid relationship and a strong support system."
Halfway Houses have been utilised around the world in countries such as the USA, Canada, and Australia, but have had limited availability in the Middle East.
Through the pilot initiative, the Family Care Authority hopes to pioneer a scientific approach that is specifically catered to the region's strong familial, cultural, and religious values.
"They may have been among the people that were under peer pressure, or any number of reasons to have indulged in this activity, that doesn't mean we should corner them," Asma said.
"What makes our centre different is that we contextualised the model to match our culture. That family has to be there; they have to be part of the journey."
A 2018 World Health Organization report estimated the cost of addiction on the UAE to be $5.47 billion.
It found that admissions to the National Rehabilitation Centre had surged from 545 in 2013 to 1,750 in 2018, and drug-related arrests had also increased sharply, with 8,428 people arrested in 2021, up 20.8% from 2020, despite stringent penalties. Since 2022, Abu Dhabi has been implementing its "Integrated Strategy to Combat Addiction" a multihorned approach to combating the growing issue through policing, rehabilitation, and education.
Asma said the Halfway House Pilot was a progressive and proactive first step that would most likely be replicated across the country in the coming years, although she conceded that there is still a lot more to do.
"Things are changing locally, and we have to adapt; we have to bring in the best scientifically approved approaches for our people and that's what we did under the leadership and the actions of our leaders," Asma said.
"Collaboration between all concerned entities on a government, local, or federal level is key… We all need to work together, because if you work on rehabilitating, but not stopping the supply, then we didn't do anything. We need to go to the root causes: What made them go there? Who brought them? How come we have these substances in the UAE?"
