MONITORING USERS OF ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUGS IN ROCINHA

Introduction and Objective: National studies point to a prevalence of alcohol dependency around 10% of the population – 12.3% according to CEBRID’s research in 2005. At the Rocinha community, general perception is that alcohol and other drugs abuse is no less severe. The already known difficulty of users accession to the treatment at the specialized service of the public health system, which is the CAPS AD (Alcohol and Drugs Psychosocial Care Center) CENTRA-RIO, once the users do not attend this service, made us realize that we should offer an intensive monitoring service at our territory. Method: In 2013, health professionals of the Strategy for Family Health, the Matrix Support Team (MST) and the Maria do Socorro CAPS created an Alcohol and Drugs Work Group to face the challenges imposed by the abuse of these substances. Results and Conclusions: Initiatives that have enlarged the access and improved the quality of the treatment of the alcohol and other drugs users at Rocinha are: a better articulation in the local health network, including the primary health care and the specialized services (CENTRA-RIO, PROJAD/IPUB, UTA/IMPP); the creation of therapeutic groups for these users; the offering of other groups already existent at the health units (groups of physical activities and craftwork activities, for example) or even at the community (Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, for example); the creation and extension of the MST and the hiring of the damage reduction agent in 2015.