Versatility of the Therapeutic Community

Dianova International organized a side event to the 60th session of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs to give visibility to the adaptive capacity of therapeutic communities

Participants to the event "Versatility of Therapeutic Communities"

On March 15, 2017, within the framework of the annual meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), Dianova International hosted an event entitled “The Versatility of Therapeutic Community” together with association ‘Proyecto Hombre’ (Spain) and NGO Kethea (Greece), and with support from both European and World Federation of Therapeutic Communities (EFTC and WFTC).

Rowdy Yates, President of EFTC opened the event by focusing on the Therapeutic Community (TC) model and its intervention methods. One of the many benefits of this model is that it allows to make adjustments at the micro level (it is for example tailored to each person’s needs, gives people increased responsibilities depending on their evolution, etc.) or at the macro level (e.g. the TC structure or frequency of group meetings can be changed) with the ultimate aim of adapting the TC to different populations.

Oriol Esculies, Director-General of Proyecto Hombre in Catalonia focused on the different modalities of the association’s TCs in Spain, including TCs for women with dependent children, youth protection centres, programmes specializing in the treatment of alcohol abuse, dual pathology treatment centers, custodial programmes and halfway shelters.

For her part, Lucía Goberna, representative of Dianova International, presented the innovative addiction and mental health programme for migrants implemented by Dianova Spain in the Catalonia region. Based on Dianova’s experience in both fields, the programme has been successfully adapted to this population, thus providing additional versatility to the TC concept.

Lastly, Phaedon Kaloterakis, deputy director of the Kethea, showed a video entitled “Prometheus Bound” (which presented one of the association’s addiction treatment programme developed in a prison – an innovative project which provides inmates with a genuine opportunity to improve their lives (watch video below)

The side event was attended by about thirty people, including officials from Spain, Portugal and Greece, representatives of the Chilean mission to the United Nations in Vienna, and representatives from international organizations such as UNICRI ( Institute of Interregional Crime and Legal Research of the United Nations). In total, 15 countries were represented among the participants. On behalf of Dianova International, we’d like to thank all participants for their presence.

Summary of the interventions

Prometheus Bound

60 session de la commission des stupéfiants