The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, gave details about the first centers in which you will be treated young addicts, available to these categories of patients this year. Rafila also spoke about testing in schools, considering that it must be voluntary.
Drug addicts can also be treated in public photo centers: Pixabay
The first public centers for the treatment of drug addicts, intended especially for young people and adolescents, could work this year. The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, spoke on Wednesday, February 12, 2025, in Craiova, at a press conference, about the reorganization of the National Anti -Drug Agency, a component of the activity of this institution being taken over by the Ministry of Health. Thus, the minister said, in the future government meeting will be approved the structure of the network through which the prevention, counseling and outpatient treatment will be carried out.
“Accessibility is important”
“We develop the current mental health centers, a decision of the Government of Romania which will be approved in the next meeting, in which this network is organized that can do prevention, counseling, testing or outpatient treatment. We sought to find affordable locations. For example, it was a location at the Anti-Drug Agency, in Cluj County, in a commune about 50 kilometers from Cluj. Accessibility is important, that I do not think someone takes the train or car to go to that distance. That’s a part. And testing I think they need to be done in these centers or with the help of these centers strictly at the request of parents And with the acceptance of the child, otherwise we will create only a competition between those who want to do test at any price and those who want to evade testing and I do not think this is the purpose ”said Rafila.
Apart from the ambulatory centers, centers will be set up in which young people receive specialized aid in hospitalization regime, and the first such centers will begin to work this year. Such centers for the treatment of addictions will work with an adapted personnel structure, in which they will be found: the psychotherapist, the physical education teacher, the teacher (so that the young people can continue their studies, at a distance) etc.
“You will see that this year the first centers will be functional, I mean those in the public area. In the country we have some counties ”said Rafila, specifying that one of the centers will be in Olt county, in Schitu Greek, and others in Hunedoara and Bistrița, already functional being such a center in Prahova, in Voila.
It has been opted for these centers to be ongoing buildings, even if they will function as sections within the hospitals, so that the addicts do not come into contact with patients with another psychiatric pathology. There are “many” presidents of county councils interested in supporting the establishment of such centers for treating addictions, especially intended for the population of the respective counties, Rafila said.
The president of the Olt County Council, Marius Oprescu, confirmed for the “Adevărul” that the project regarding the appearance of a new section within the Schitu Greek Chronic Psychiatry Hospital, which has been talked about for many years, has greatly and that this year these services will be available.
“As you know, we built a new flag, part for a section of addictions and part for gerontopsychiatry. We got some of the beds, giving up Slatina County Hospital, Balș Hospital and Caracal Hospital, we were approved the organizational chart in Bucharest, and in the next period the positions will be removed, after which we will start this section ” , Oprescu said. The new pavilion will have a capacity of 32 beds, cumulative for addicts and gerontopsychiatry.
“We cannot do police in schools”
Speaking of the prevention part, the Minister of Health said that he does not advocate for mandatory testing in schools, beyond the fact that this test could not be carried out efficient considering the multitude of the psychoactive substances used.
“The test must be voluntary, it must not be coercive. We cannot do some kind of police in schools, walk someone and run students to test for various drugs. I want to remind you two elements: one through which the new synthetic substances, the so-called ethnobotanical and so on, can not even be tested, because they are new substances, which appear all the time ”, Rafila said.
