The National AIDS Centre, in cooperation with the Central Board of the Prison Service in Poland, seeks to improve the provision of health care to inmates, with particular attention to: implementation of opioid substitution treatment (OST); harm reduction measures; and continuity of treatment for prisoners who use drugs, live with HIV or are co-infected with HBV, HCV, TB, and STIs. During the two days, plenary sessions and four interactive workshops were held:
1. Harm reduction in prison: approaches, services, barriers, challenges, and good practices
2. Substitution treatment in prison: good practices, and practical implementation
3. Continuity of care
4. Harm reduction and infectious diseases in prison: challenges, good practices, and barriers
Heino Stoever, Andrej Kastelic, Cinzia Brentari, and Marcin Wolny, chaired the sessions and there were 80 experts from 12 countries (Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Luxemburg, Italy, Portugal, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Greece) in attendance.
Participants outlined the current state of interventions, such as substitution treatment in the field of harm reduction in penitentiary institutions, in the context of international and national regulations. During the workshop: financial, legal, social, professional, administrative, and moral barriers, to the implementations of harm reduction programmes in prisons, were discussed. Participants presented examples of harm reduction programmes and health care in countries from the European Union (e.g. The Czech delegation presented the effects the distribution of condoms has had in prisons). They further discussed barriers to the implementation of harm reduction measures, OST, and continuity of care in prisons. As a result of the seminar best-practices and training needs, for future development, were identified. Specific aspects of harm reduction, that need to be addressed through training, were also acknowledged. Furthermore, the need of prison services, with regards to harm reduction, should be further explored.
Conclusions and recommendations from each workshop will feed the thematic scope and curriculum of the international training workshop for prison service staff, which will take place in Poland in November 2017.
More information about our seminar can be found under the link: https://harmreduction.eu/seminars